104 THE STORY OF PLANT LiFe 
It was, as some names suggest, used at wedding 
festivals, for strewing about the house. 
“‘ Amongst these strewing kinds some others wild that grow 
As burnet, all abroad and Meadow wort they throw.” 
Drayton. 
BRAMBLE (Rubus rusticanus). 
Probably few people are aware that there are nearly 
a hundred different species of Bramble or Blackberry. 
This is possibly due to the fact that they are so very 
similar, and also in part to the fact that in some 
districts, beyond the Raspberry and Dewberry, which 
are well-marked, there are few species beyond the one 
here chosen for description and one or two others. 
The more specialised species grow in woods ‘in 
different parts of the country. 
This species, which is perhaps the commonest, is 
found in a large number of the English and Scotch 
counties, but is not so general in the latter as in the 
former. 
The common bramble, as we may designate the 
plant under notice, is not only an extremely abundant 
plant in the hedgerow, along the roadside, and in 
fields and meadows, but it forms undergrowth in 
woods also, though it is more particularly a sun-lover. 
It is frequently a large component of the scrub of 
commons and heaths, and there prevails to the exclu- 
sion of all other ps except the Dog Rose and the 
Hawthorn. 
The Bramble habit is extremely characteristic, 
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