NEW FRUIT.
Some accounts have recently appeared of the thornless blackberry that our Mendelians have " invented," an accom- plishment at least as great as any to the credit of " the plant wizard," as all America described that honest and scientific worker, Mr. Burbank. Now one of the more curious develop- ments of intensive fruit culture in England has been the planting of garden forms of the blackberry, which by its nature seems to divagate into more varieties than almost any plant which grows, always excepting the sportive ber- beris. The blackberry has the advantage of ripening at a useful date and maintaining the unbroken succession of fruits, which is the chief cause of the progressive increase in fruit consumption. It is more important to breed out the excess of pip over pulp than to banish thorns ; and already some of the cultivated varieties have a great superiority over the wild. These are as jelly is to jam. However, thornlessness, like hornlessness in cattle, is all to the good.
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