TWO NEW BRAMBLES FROM IRELAND. 505 



tlie angles, always small and not unfreqnently passing into acicles 

 on the faces. Leares mostly 5-nate-pedate, yellowish in exposure, 

 rewtokabli/ broad owing to the exceptionally large intermediate 

 leaflets and the short stalk of the terminal one, with petiole ahout 

 one-third shorter than terminal leaflet and only slightly exceeding 

 the basal ; stipules very narrow, ciliate. Leaflets stroniilij imbricate 

 as a rule, plicate, rugose, shining and strigose above, paler and 

 usually glabrous beneath except on midrib and nerves, which have 

 a few short shining hairs ; teruiinal about four times longer than its 

 stalic, very broadly ovate with acuminate point and emarginate or 

 subcordate base ; intermediate nearly as large and similar, though of 

 course with narrower base ; basal oval, small, very shortly stalked; 

 all coarsely biserrate. 



Panicle very lax below with long strongly ascending racemose 

 or subracemose branches and 1-3-flowered patent or patent- 

 erect ones in the ultra-axillary part ; rachis rather fiexuose, 

 felted above and clothed throaylwut ivith dense fine hair, numerous 

 small acicular prickles, and a good many sunkefi and subsessile glands ; 

 leaves 3-nate below with broad leaflets, the floral ones (1 to 3) 

 simple and broadly ovate, or 3-tid ; bracts many, usually 3-fid, 

 peduncles and pedicels rather long, grey-felted. Sepals grey-green, 

 white-margined in bud, clothed like the rachis but with more 

 numerous sunken glands and (usually) acicles, reflexed after the 

 petals fall but soon ascending, red at base within. Petals white, 

 rather small with long claws, distant. Stamens white, erect, not 

 greatly exceeding green styles and soon closing in on them. 

 Carpels apparently glabrous. 



This is the bramble referred to by Messrs. Marshall and Shool- 

 bred, its discoverers, in p. 253 of the present volume of this Journal, 

 as " a striking plant found at Oughterard, Maam, Clonbur, and 

 Cong." It was at first thought by me to be a glabrous form of 

 R. hirtifolins Muell. & Wirtg., while Dr. Focke felt inclined rather 

 to associate it with R. Salteri Bab. Early in last summer Mr. 

 Marshall was able to repeat and extend his previous exploration of 

 the district, and he then came to the conclusion that this is one 

 of the most general and constant bramble forms occurring through- 

 out the parts of E. Galway and W. Mayo which lie to the north and 

 the north-east of Lough Corrib. The above description has been 

 made from a large series of specimens that he kindly sent me, fresh 

 and dried, from several localities, in 1895 and 1896. I agree with 

 him in thinking it a very distinct form, which probably does not 

 occur in Great Britain, thouji;h it may prevail widely in the west of 

 Ireland. If its nearest ally with us is R. Salteri, it yet differs con- 

 siderably from that species as represented by the only specimens 

 I have seen (from Apse Castle Wood and Aconbury). In its leaves 

 and stem, and its silvaticus-\\ke armature especially, it is con- 

 spicuously different. Ft. Salteri itself, however, is still among our 

 most obscure and ill-defined species, and it may yet prove to be 

 nothing more than a local form. It is therefore hardly possible to 

 say at present what other brambles may be rightly includid under 

 it as varieties or subspecies. 



.Journal of Botany. — Vol. 34. [Dec. 189G.] 2 l 



