A HANDFUL OF ANDES BERRIES These luscious fruits, which resemble in character but are somewhat sweeter and richer in flavor, are produced by an immense, raspberry-like bramble which grows wild in the region between southern Mexico and Peru, and is cultivated in Colombia and Ecuador. They can probably be grown in several parts of the United States, and in addition, the species should be of great interest to breeders for crossing with our cultivated raspberries. The specimens here shown, slightly reduced in size, were picked from wild on the volcano Irazu, in Costa Rica. (Frontispiece.) Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jhered/article-abstract/12/9/387/768476 by Tufts University user on 21 March 2018 THE ANDES BERRY WILSON POPENOE Agricultural Explorer, United States Department-of Agriculture CATTERED throughout the high- foliate, like those of the black rasp- S lands of tropical America, mainly berry; and the fruit-clusters are similar at elevations between 4,000 and to those of the latter. The luscious 10,000 feet, are many species of , fruits, in place of pulling off (separating some of which produce excellent fruits. from the torus or receptacle) as do our Few of them, however, are seen in cul- raspberries, must be picked like black- tivation, though the juicy berries of a berries. The receptacle remains firmly dozen or more are sometimes gathered attached within the fruit, and the calyx from wild plants and carried to the adheres to its base. markets of large cities such as Guate- In this connection, it is worthy of mala, Bogota, and Quito. mention that the Colombian berry Rubus glaucus Benth., the Andes presents conditions just the reverse of berry (as it may well be called, after this. Its canes, leaves, and flowers the region in which it grows most resemble those of our northern black- abundantly) is certainly one of the most berries, while its huge fruits are rasp- valuable. This species occurs as a wild berries, if judged by our present stand- plant in several countries, and is culti- ard, since they pull off the torus when vated in at least two,—Colombia and fully ripe, leaving the latter attached to Ecuador. That a fruit of such excellent the plant. In other words, the Andes quality should have escaped the atten- berry is a raspberry in growth but a tion of North American horticulturists blackberry in fruit, while the Colom- until very recently seems difficult of bian berry is a blackberry in growth explanation. Unlike the Colombian and a raspberry in fruit. Our present berry (Rubus macro carpus'), described classification will have to be altered in a recent number of the JOURNAL OF somewhat if it is to include these tropi- HEREDITY, its distribution is not cal American species. limited to a narrow and rather inac- cessible zone in the higher Andes: A VARIABLE SPECIES not only is it common as a wild plant Traveling down the Andes in search throughout an extensive area, but it is of new food-plants for introduction into also abundant in the gardens of numer- the United States, I was much inter- ous towns and villages. ested by the wide range of variation In character of growth and foliage exhibited by plants, both wild and cul- this species closely resembles the black tivated, of Rubus glaucus.1 Differences raspberry, while the fruits are more in the size, color, and quality of the like our blackberries in character. For fruits were particularly striking. Some this reason it does not seem proper to of the varieties are, to my mind, call it the "Andes raspberry," nor yet superior to our northern raspberries in the "Andes blackberry." The canes, flavor, as well as in size. which are trailing to half-erect, are I had picked many of these berries covered with whitish bloom, and root from wild plants in the mountains, freely at the tips; the leaves are tri- and had enjoyed them; but a full ap- 1 Since this species is not well known to North American botanists, I append the following brief characterization: Canes trailing to suberect, up to 5 m. long; branches, panicles, and petioles glabrous, glaucus-pruinose, armed with recurved thorns; leaves pinnately trifoliate, the leaflets ovate-lanceolate, long-acuminate, glabrous above and white tomentose beneath; flowers about 2 cm. broad, in few-flowered leafy panicles, the sepals long-acuminate, petals white, nearly as long as the sepals; fruits oblong to cordate, 2 to 4 cm. long, light to dark purplish red, composed" of numerous drupelets which are pilose when immature.

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preciation of their rich flavor, juiciness, of the remarkable binomial nomencla- and freedom from objectionable seeds ture employed by the Guatemalan did not come until I was served, at Indians of Maya descent, a system Charles J. Eder's home in the beautiful which recognizes botanical relation- Cauca valley of Colombia, a saucer of ships, in a limited way, and which prob- thoroughly ripe ones, with cream and ably has been in existence since long sugar. The scarcity of the former before the Conquest. article in the Andean region makes it In Costa Rica I again found the difficult for the agricultural explorer plant, growing abundantly upon the to test such fruits as blackberries slopes of the volcano Irazu at elevations and raspberries under conditions com- between 6,000 and 7,000 feet. In cer- parable with those to which he is tain places it forms solid stands, twenty accustomed in the United States. or thirty yards in diameter. The plants There are, I believe, a number of ber- are suberect in habit, and reach about ries in the Andes which would compare six feet in height. The fruits are differ- favorably with our own, if served in the ent from those seen in Guatemala, same fashion; but when one buys them being somewhat smaller, lighter red in in the market, picked before fully color, and not so rich in flavor. Botan- mature and badly bruised in transit, ical specimens collected here, however, and eats them without the customary prove that the plant is not specifically concomitants, he is not certain to ap- different from the one studied in Guate- preciate them at their full value. mala, hence we can only conclude that I first came upon the Andes berry we are dealing with a variation such as in the highlands of northern Guate- those which give rise to horticultural mala. Here it is found, in the region forms. of Coban, at elevations of 4,000 to 6,000 feet. It is not abundant, as it is in ABUNDANT IN COLOMBIA northern South America, nor have I Upon reaching the highlands of ever seen plants of such large size as in Colombia, in the department of Cun- the latter region. Indeed, in Guate- dinamarca, I again found Rubus glaucus mala it usually occurs in the form of a growing as a wild plant, and here, for straggling or trailing bush not over the first time, I saw its luscious fruits six or eight feet in height. It frequents offered in the markets. In the city of clay soils, and open, sunny places. Bogota they can be obtained during a The fruits produced by these wild large part of the year; they are sold plants in Guatemala (for I never saw under the name of mora de Caslilla, it cultivated in that country) are which does not, however, serve to dis- oblong, up to an inch and a half in tinguish them from the fruits of other length, and dark maroon. They re- species of Rubus, since several which mind one of loganberries, except that grow wild in this region are commonly they are broader in form and somewhat sold under the same name. The use of sweeter in taste. They have small, the term mora, originally meaning mul- soft seeds, and are very juicy. The berry in Spanish, has been extended in flavor is rich and delicious. The Latin America to include many fruits Indians, as they wander over the moun- of the genus Rubus. To indicate a tainsides, gather and eat them, but the variety of superior quality the Colom- quantity available is never large enough bians generally add the phrase de to warrant carrying the fruit to market, Castillo, (Castilian), a usage which •—at least, I have never seen it on sale has come down from Colonial days, in any of the Guatemalan towns. The when the best of everything was sup- Kekchi know this berry as uuk-tokan; posed to come from the Mother Coun- the latter word is applied to several try. species of Rubus, and the prefix uuk The plant is found in considerable is used to designate this particular one. abundance upon the mountainsides We have here, in fact, another example not far from Bogota, mainly at eleva-

Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jhered/article-abstract/12/9/387/768476 by Tufts University user on 21 March 2018 FOLIAGE, FLOWERS AND FRUIT, NATURAL SIZE In character of growth the Andes berry is similar to our cultivated raspberries: the canes are glaucous, the leaves trifoliate (although the few shown above, arising from a flower-panicle, are simple) and the flowers white. The fruit, however, does not separate from the torus or recep- tacle, as does the raspberry, but more closely resembles our blackberries in character. Photo- graphed at Ambato, Ecuador. (Fig. 1.)

Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jhered/article-abstract/12/9/387/768476 by Tufts University user on 21 March 2018 TWO PLANTS IN WESTERN COLOMBIA To plant breeders, the unusual vigor of the Andes berry is of great interest, as offering a valuable characteristic for combination, by means of hybridization, with our cultivated raspberries. The tangled mass of foliage shown above is derived from two plants growing in the grounds of the American Hospital at La Cumbre, near Cali, in western Colombia. It seems probable that more berries would be produced if the plants were pruned for the production of fruiting laterals, instead of being allowed to develop unchecked as is invariably the case in South America. (Fig. 2.)

Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jhered/article-abstract/12/9/387/768476 by Tufts University user on 21 March 2018 A CLUSTER OF IMMATURE ANDES BERRIES, AND A SINGLE MATURE ONE The fruits are borne on leafy panicles, and when fully ripe are light red to deep maroon in color, soft and juicy in texture, with small, soft seeds. Although the species has not had the benefit of intelligent cultivation with a view to improving the size and quality of the fruit, Andes berries are perhaps superior to most of our cultivated raspberries in flavor and quality. The fruits here shown, natural size, were produced by cultivated plants at Ambato, Ecuador. (Fig. 3.)

Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jhered/article-abstract/12/9/387/768476 by Tufts University user on 21 March 2018 392 The Journal of Heredity tions of 6,000 to 8,000 feet. The fruits second kind is light red—almost rose appeared to me somewhat darker in red—and is of a milder flavor than the color than most of those I had seen common sort. The third one is said in Costa Fica, but not quite so large, to be light pink, and for this reason is soft, and luscious as those of northern called mom blanca (white mora). Guatemala. I saw no plants in cultiva- As in Colombia, the species occurs tion in this part of Colombia, but after abundantly in Ecuador as an indige- crossing the Quindio pass and traveling nous plant. I have seen it most com- up the Cauca valley, I found at La monly at elevations between 8,000 and Cumbre, a small station on the railroad 10,000 feet. In the wild state it is between Cali and the Pacific port of rarely over six or eight feet high, and Buenaventura, a few plants growing in not particularly vigorous in growth; the garden of an American hospital. but when brought into cultivation I This was the first time I had seen the have seen a single specimen cover the species in cultivation, but I was soon to side of a small house, or reach several become familiar with it in Ecuadorean feet above a garden wall ten feet high. gardens. Here at La Cumbre (eleva- tion about 5,200 feet), in the western CULTURAL NEEDS cordillera of the Andes, I was impressed In Ecuador, although it ranks as a by the luxuriant growth which the cultivated plant, very little attention species makes when brought into culti- is given to its cultural requirements, vation. Two specimens covered a huge and we can learn but little from an arbor 25 feet long by 10 feet in breadth examination of the methods used by and height, and furnished enough fruit Ecuadorean horticulturists. No prun- to supply the hospital staff with excel- ing is done, though it seems reasonable lent sauce and jelly. Yet I am con- to believe that careful attention to this vinced that much more fruit would be subject would result in far greater produced if the plant were system- yields of fruit. It must be admitted atically pruned. Fruiting laterals are that even the most productive plants not developed in great abundance by observed in Ecuadorean gardens bear these huge plants; most of the fruit small crops, when compared with must therefore be borne on terminal northern blackberries or raspberries. clusters, which can never be very Probably this is largely due to the numerous. circumstance that they are allowed to It is in Ecuador that the Andes develop too much wood, and are not berry is best known, and horticultur- pruned for the production of fruiting ally most important. Two towns, in laterals. particular, are noted for it: these are I have seen wild plants upon clay Ambato (8,500 feet) and Otavalo soil, light sandy loam of volcanic (8,100 feet). In both of these, plants origin, and rich alluvial loam. In are found in nearly every garden, and northern Guatemala, they occur in a the fruit appears commonly in the region where the rainfall is between 80 markets; it is available throughout and 120 inches per annum, and is a large part of the year and is much distributed through not less than ten used in the preparation of conserves of the twelve months. In Ecuador, on and of a heavy syrup from which a the other hand, they are sometimes refreshing drink is made. Otavalo is found in places where the annual rain- noted for this latter product. fall is not more than 15 or 20 inches. I have seen, in Ecuador, two well- Plants sent from Guatemala to the defined varieties of this berry, and have United States have been winter-killed heard of a third. The common sort is at Washington, D. C, as would be deep maroon, about like the form ob- expected of a species from an elevation served in Guatemala, though slightly of 5,000 feet in the latitude of the different in flavor, as far as I can com- Central American countries. In Ecua- pare the two by recollection. The dor, wild plants are occasionally seen

Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jhered/article-abstract/12/9/387/768476 by Tufts University user on 21 March 2018 Richey: Use of Greenhouse in Corn Breeding 393 at elevations of 10,000 to 11,000 feet, Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of where light frosts are experienced; but Texas. Particular attention may be it is not to be anticipated that the directed to its value for plant breeders: Andes berry will succeed in parts of the because of its vigor, and the large size United States which are too cold for and good quality of its fruit, it seems the . More probably its likely to prove an excellent subject cultivation will be limited in this for crossing with some of our northern country to the Pacific Coast states, raspberries. THE USE OF THE GREENHOUSE IN CORN BREEDING FREDERICK D. RICHEY Agronomist in Corn Investigations, Office of Cereal Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture HE improvement of corn by selec- abnormally near, and in extreme cases tion within self-fertilized lines even above, the soil surface. To T necessarily is a slow process, and nullify the effect of this tendency the any method that will shorten the time seed was planted in the bottom of a required is highly desirable. It has 6-inch furrow which was not filled in been shown that sweet corn is adapted until the root system had become well for forcing under glass.1 The green- established. This method proved very house also has been used successfully in effective. inheritance studies with corn as shown After emergence the plants were by casual reference in several articles. thinned to a stand that provided 1.67 The author is informed by Mr. G. N. square feet per plant. This is at the Collins, however, that attempts to grow rate of over 25,000 plants per acre, corn during the winter—that is, planted and was entirely too thick, as, although in the fall—in the greenhouse have not there was plenty of moisture and fer- been successful. The plants under tility, it interfered with proper light such conditions have failed to develop distribution. It is thought that a rate normally and have ripened prematurely allowing three square feet per plant with a scanty production of seed. The would utilize the space to good advan- following notes indicate that under tage. some conditions such practice is en- The following strains were grown: tirely successful. The determining 8 plants of Gerrick that had been self- differences are not known, and these fertilized for five generations; 24 plants notes are offered to indicate the prac- of a Chinese dent variety, self-fertilized ticability of this method, with the hope for one generation; and 20 plants of a that interest in the possibilities of chlorophyll-deficient, brachytic strain greenhouse culture may be promoted. of U. S. Selection No. 201 that had been self-fertilized for three generations. USE OF THE GREENHOUSE Two ears were obtained from the The crop was grown in one of the Gerrick, none from the No. 201, and a department greenhouses at the Arling- few seeds on each of three cobs from the ton Farm, Rosslyn, Virginia, during Chinese variety. the winter of 1920-21. The center There also were 116 plants from 58 space was excavated to a depth of 12 F! crosses between self-fertilized inches and filledwit h good soil. Under strains of U. S. Selection No. 201. greenhouse conditions the secondary The following notes refer to these cross- roots of corn frequently originate bred plants. 1 Rane, F. W. Green Corn Under Glass. N. H. Agr. Expt. Sta. Bull. 60. 1899.

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