Collecting Blackberries in Virginia and North Carolina

On June 14, 1966, we arrived in Williamsburg to begin a search for the several species of Rubus which have been described from southeastern Virginia by L. H. Bailey and by M. L. Fernald. We hoped to collect them at or near their type stations. Just after we entered Williamsburg from the north on U. S. 60, we stopped at a waste area of several acres between the road and railroad. It was overgrown with brambles and Japanese honeysuckle, and infested with ticks. There we found Rubus iniens Bailey, known to Bailey only from the type and other collections by E. J. Grimes from west of Williamsburg. We also collected R. par Bailey, R. cordialis Bailey, R. connixus Bailey, R. humei Bailey, R. pascuus Bailey, and R. subtractus Bailey. West of Williamsburg we found R. subinnoxus Fern., and a beautiful colony of R. grimesii Bailey, the type of which was collected near Williamsburg. We failed to locate R. imperiorum Fern. at its type locality west of Williamsburg. Our last find for the day was Fernald’s R. defectionis between Carrollton and Reserve, Isle of Wight County, a few miles from the type station at Eclipse. We did not locate, R. pernagaeus Fern.