Raspberries, or brambles, are native to America and Europe. The earliest known written information about them comes from Pliny, the Roman naturalist and writer of the 1st Century A.D., who told of Greeks near Mount Ida who gathered them. Even the scientific name of the classic culitvated red raspberry, Rubus idaeus, given by the Swedish botanist Linneaus, alludes to this plant's ancient past. Idaeus, the species name, refers to Mount Ida in Greece, where the plant was believed to have originated. Rubus, the genus name of raspberries, refers to the Latin word for red, ruber, for the berry's red color.