Blackberry canes are full of thorns, but they give us blackberries, so who are we to complain? The flowers that precede the berries are like little white roses,as befits a member of the rose family—but curiously wrinkled and untidy roses, as if they had slept in their petals after a long night of exhausting revelry. These blackberries were blooming in early May by a wooden fence in Scott Township.

Gray describes the genus and the species:

RUBUS [Tourn.] L. BRAMBLE. Calyx 5 (3-7)-parted, without bractlets. Petals 5, deciduous. Stamens numerous. Achenes usually many, collected on a spongy or succulent receptacle, becoming small drupes; styles nearly terminal. Perennial herbs, or somewhat shrubby plants, with white (rarely reddish) flowers, and usually edible fruit. (The Roman name, kindred with ruber, red.)