high, shrubby, densely covered with bristles; older, woody stems
with rigid, hooked prickles. Leaves: Compounded of 3 to 5 ovate,
pointed, and irregularly saw-edged leaflets, downy beneath, on
bristly petioles. Fruit: A light red, watery, tender,
high-flavored, edible berry; ripe July-September.
Preferred Habitat - Dry soil, rocky hillsides, fence-rows,
hedges.
Flowering Season - May-July.
Distribution - Labrador to North Carolina, also in Rocky Mountain
region.

Who but the bees and such small visitors care about the raspberry
blossoms? Notwithstanding the nectar secreted in a fleshy ring
for their benefit, comparatively few insects enter the flowers,
whose small, erect petals imply no hospitable welcome.
Occasionally a visitor laden with pollen from another plant
alights in the center of a blossom, and leaves some on the
stigmas in bending his head down between them and the stamens to
reach the refreshment; but inasmuch as the erect petals allow no
room for the stamens to spread out and away from the stigmas, it
follows that self-fertilization very commonly occurs.

Of course, men and children, bears and birds, are vastly more
interested in the delicious berries; men for the reason that
several excellent market varieties, some white or pale red, the
Cuthbert and Hansall berries among others, owe their origin to
this hardy native. Many superior sorts derived from its European
counterpart (R. Idaeus) cannot well endure our rigorous northern
climate. As in the case of most berry-bearing species, the
raspberry depends upon the birds to drop its undigested seeds