receptacle. Stem: 3 to 10 ft. high, woody, furrowed, curved,
armed with stout, recurved prickles. Leaves: Compounded of 3 to 5
ovate, saw-edged leaflets, the end one stalked, all hairy
beneath. Fruit: Firmly attached to the receptacle; nearly black,
oblong juicy berries 1 in. long or less, hanging in clusters.
Ripe, July-August.
Preferred Habitat - Dry soil, thickets, fence-rows, old fields,
waysides. Low altitudes.
Flowering Season - May-June.
Distribution - New England to Florida, and far westward.

"There was a man of our town,
And he was wondrous wise,
He jumped into a bramble bush" -

If we must have poetical associations for every flower, Mother
Goose furnishes several.

But for the practical mind this plant's chief interest lies in
the fact that from its wild varieties the famous Lawton and
Kittatinny blackberries have been derived. The late Peter
Henderson used to tell how the former came to be introduced. A
certain Mr. Secor found an unusually fine blackberry growing wild
in a hedge at New Rochelle, New York, and removed it to his
garden, where it increased apace. But not even for a gift could
he induce a neighbor to relieve him of the superfluous bushes, so
little esteemed were blackberries in his day. However, a shrewd
lawyer named Lawton at length took hold of it, exhibited the
fruit, advertised it cleverly, and succeeded in pocketing a snug
little fortune from the sale of the prolific plants. Another fine