I’ve been reading this today, having just bought a copy of the 1974 reprint (Sketch of the Evolution of Our Native Fruits; Scholarly Resources, Inc.; Wilmington, Delaware ISBN 084201473X; the original 1898), also available used & not expensively in the original 1898 or 1906 reprints eds, and if you can read komputer versions:
https://archive.org/search?query=Sketch+of+the+evolution+of+our+native+fruits
(hint: although the illustrations in this book aren’t detailed, the .djvu editions of anything on archive org or BHL are always much better resolution even if half the size of a pdf or less, so worth getting a djvu reader - besides the fact that archive org PDFs are weirdly extremely slow to open & use…)
By ‘evolution’ he’s really referring to the initial ‘discovery’ (by European immigrants); description; cultivation; & any breeding etc. that’s been done (or should be in future, post-1898)
I figured I’d see here which books of his have been discussed or other LHB topics, only to search and find his name mentioned only three times peripherally, way too few for a fruit forum by one of the most important (maybe the) fruit researchers in history!
Pretty much anything I’ve read of his is still relevant today or at least useful to know about (OK, so not all his Rubus species stuck, he still made good points and did careful descriptions!).
I’ve also got his ‘Rubus in North America’ (Gentes Herbarum 1941-1945, Vol. V, fasc. I-X, a massive 932pp (with dozens maybe hundreds of great line illustrations!); Cornell NY: Bailey Hortorium, NY State Coll.Agr. at Cornell U.
(LHB was a bit of a Rubus fanatic - I’ve also got a copy of the 1947 Flora of Kalamazoo County, Michigan by Haines, in which he did the section on Rubus, describing dozens of new species - gave him an inch and he took a yard! …)
I’ve also got "Hortus Third’, of course (revised by others from his ‘Hortus second’).
Next I think I’ll try to get his ‘The survival of the unlike; a collection of evolution essays suggested by the study of domestic plants’ (1896), since he refers to that now & again in the current volume of discussion.
He’s got good books on pruning, nursery operations, orcharding, gardening, taxonomy & plant-naming, & other fruit topics - and a lot more including poetry about natural history! (’ Wind and Weather’, 1919). You can figure out how to get a listing on the web I am certain!
So let’s hear it for a great scientist and hard working writer - still worth reading 95 or 140 years later!