THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



No. 107. DECEMBER 1845. 



XXXIX. — Remarks on some forms of Rubus. By T. Bell 

 Salter, M.D., F.L.S. &c.* 



The object of the present communication is to bring forward the 

 results of some extended rather than any very elaborate obser- 

 vations on several forms of the fruticose Ruhi, as well as to make 

 some general observations on the group itself. With the latter 

 considerations my remarks more naturally commence. 



It is not a little striking, and it has already called forth many 

 stringent and some severe remarks, that out of what was so long- 

 considered as one, two or three species, so many new ones should 

 in such quick succession be enumerated; that — while all admit the 

 difficulty of distinguishing species and estimating the value of 

 their characters, and agree as to the fact of many different forms 

 appearing to pass into each other, — yet every one who comes to 

 the work should appear thus ready and eager to add new species, 

 and with them, it may be thought, new difficulties to the task. 



That in this eager endeavour to distinguish forms and esta- 

 blish them by definite names, an undue value — that of enume- 

 rating mere forms as species — has been given to many of them, 

 there can be no doubt ; and it is one of the objects of this paper 

 to reduce some of these to their respective species. In some cases, 

 where the enumerated so-called species are rather numerous and 

 the forms variable, it has required a careful analysis to arrive at 

 anything like a satisfactory conclusion. The reason of the diffi- 

 culty in this kind of analysis, is one which applies fundamentally 

 to the study of the group, and which has cast the greatest slur 

 on the labours of its students. It is this :■ — 



That the different characters are often not coincident ; that while 

 some several observed characters have been assumed to consti- 

 tute one species, and other several characters another, — certain 

 of these in other forms are found otherwise combined, arid this in 



* Read before the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, Nov. 13, 1845. 

 Ann. ^ Mag, N. Hist, Vol xvi. 2 D 



