Mr. C. C. Babington on the British Rubi. 167 



' Novitiarum Florae Sueciae mantissa altera et tertia ' of Fries 

 (Upsala, 1839 — 1842); ' Monographia Ruborum Suecise' of 

 Arrhenius (Upsala, 1840); and 'Monographie des Rubus de 

 Nancy ' of Godi'on (Nancy, 1843). It has also been my endea- 

 vour to ascertain what forms are to be considered as species and 

 what only as varieties. Had views concerning species been 

 adopted similar to those elucidated in the invaluable ^ Rubi Ger- 

 manici/ this synopsis would have contained sixty-three species 

 at the least, and with every wish to reduce them as far as nature 

 will allow, they still amount to about half that number. Several 

 of these are now described for the first time ; of them full de- 

 scriptions are given ; of the others the technical characters alone 

 are introduced, accompanied by such notes and observations as 

 appeared to be requisite. 



In so large an assemblage of species it becomes necessary to 

 attempt a separation into groups, but in this, as in all rich and 

 natural genera, it is found to be nearly impossible to do so. Many 

 species are easily referable to sections, such as those which 

 I have adopted ; but their artificial character is shown by other 

 species which would belong to one section when young, and to 

 another in their maturer state, or which possess characters so 

 nearly intermediate, as to make it very difficult to decide in 

 which section they should be placed. Still the divisions adopted 

 in this essay have been found to be more constant and convenient 

 than those derived from other pecuharities which are employed 

 by some authors. 



It is not pretended that all the forms are correctly referred to 

 their true places, but simply that the information within my 

 reach and the best judgement which I can form have been used 

 in this attempt at their arrangement. Additional study will 

 doubtless show that many alterations are requisite ; will perhaps 

 prove that some of those now considered as varieties are really 

 specifically distinct, and demonstrate that several of my species 

 may be combined with others. In those cases in which plants 

 are described as new, every endeavour has been made to ascertain 

 that they are not already published in the works of continental 

 botanists ; but the want of authentic specimens has added greatly 

 to the difficulty of determining many of those species which are 

 not represented in the ' Rubi Germanici,^ and made it far from 

 improbable that some of my names, and also those of Dr. Salter, 

 will ultimately be superseded. It would appear that botanists 

 generally are very little inclined to distribute authentic specimens 

 of Rubi ; indeed, when we consider the variable character of many 

 species, and the trouble attending the preservation of sufficiently 

 characteristic specimens of all, we can hardly wonder at their 

 rarity. In my own case, from residing in a district far from rich 



