346 SHORT NOTES. 



Dipsacm pilosiis, L. — Abundaut near Hook-a-gate, Shrewsbury; 

 it also grows near Highley, and about Build was and Lilleshall 

 Abbeys. 



Scablosa Columbaria, L. — On Wenlock Edge, near Presthope. 



Carduiis nutans, L. — Common on light sandy or gravelly soil. 



C. eriophoriis, L. — Left bank of the Severn, above Cressage 

 Bridge. 



Arctium, majiis, Schkuhr. — Open places m woods and in dingles; 

 common, often abundaut. 



Serratula tinctoria, L. — Found by Mr. H. Auden on Haughmond 

 Hill ; plentiful in Wyre Forest. 



Chrij.santhemum Tanacetum, Syme. — Common by streams ; 

 abundant along the banks of the Severn. 



( To be continued). 



SHOET NOTES. 



KuBUs DISCOLOR, W. & N., var. leucocarpus. — A few months 

 ago I learnt from a friend that he had for many years known a 

 bramble which yielded amber- coloured fruit ; and at my request 

 he brought me, on Sept. 16th, some branches with ripe berries. 

 The plant is a robust specimen of 11. discolor, differing from the 

 type in no other respect than in the colour of the fruits. These 

 are of the usual size and number of acini, but when immatiu-e 

 their colour is bright pale green, passing to transparent amber 

 when fully ripe. No other tint is present at any stage of their 

 development. The flavour too differs from that of the ordinary 

 blackberry, and my friend thinks that when he was a boy the 

 fruits were larger and more agreeable than those now gathered. 

 They may have been so certainly, but it is more probable that 

 his juvenile palate was more apx)reciative than that he now 

 possesses at mature age. Most of us have seen amber-fruited 

 raspberries, but this variation seems to be very rare among the 

 Rubi Fruticosi. In the 2nd edition of Ray's ' Synopsis' (1696) a 

 white-fruited bramble is thus mentioned : — " Eubus vulgaris major 

 h'uctu albo. TJie cu)innon (jreater Bramble-hush, with irliite berries. 

 Hujus non fructus tantum colore albo a vulgaris fructu dift'ert, 

 sed et cortex et folia liilare viridia sunt, cum illius plerunque 

 fusca sen obscure rubentia observentur. Found accidentally in a 

 hedge not far from O.vford : I). Bobart.'' In the third edition of 

 the ' Synopsis ' (edited by Dillenius) this is constituted a distinct 

 species. Babington (Brit. Rubi, p. 1) mentions that a variety of 

 R. thyrsoideus {R. fruticosus, W. & N.), named " leurocarjius, carpeUis 

 albis," is recorded by Seringe in De CandoUe's ' Prodromus ' (ii. 

 561.) These are the only records I can find. The x^lant I have 

 before me grows for several yards in a very old hedge at the foot 

 of the Mendip Hills near Axbridge, Somerset, where my fi'iend 

 remembers it for about twenty-eight years. — Jas. W. White. 



