SPIR^A. RUBUS. 59 



Quart. Rev. Nov. 1851, p. 382, this plant was in high estimation, 

 for " the leaues and flowres farre excell all other strowing herhes, for 

 to decke vp houses, to straw in chambers, halls, and banqueting 

 houses in the sommer time ; for the smell thereof makes the heart 

 merrie, delighteth the senses : neither doth it cause head-ache, or 

 lothsomenesse to meat, as some other sweet smelling herbes do." 

 Gerarde. Notwithstanding this authority/our border matrons say 

 that, if smelled at too much, the Queen-of-the-Meadow will cause 

 people to take fits/ It is reckoned wholesome for cattle when amongst 

 meadow-hay. 



162. Sp. FiLiPENDULA. Very rare. B. Belches-brae wood near 

 the Lees, Miss E. Bell. July. 



163. Geum urbanum. Avens. Woods and hedges, common. 

 May-Aug. 



164. G. INTERMEDIUM. I find this plant scattered over the di- 

 strict, but always sparingly in every locality. Thus a single specimen 

 only could be found on the bank of the road which leads from Nor- 

 ham-bridge into Berwickshire. I have seen it growing in the same 

 way in hedges near Netherbyres ; and near D. Berrington. July. 



165. G. RiVALE. Water Avens. Sides of streamlets, burns, and 

 ditches, and in boggy woods and meadows, common. A monstrous 

 variety with a showy rose-like flower, and which is apt to become 

 proliferous, is occasionally met with in our deans. 



RUBUS. = ISramblc*. 



In studying the species of this genus I have been enabled to avail 

 myself of Weihe and Nees von Esenbeck's work on the German 

 Rubi through the kindness of Pi'ofessor Balfour. I have also con- 

 sulted the writings of Borrer, Smith, Leighton, Lees, Babington, and 

 Bell Salter ; but I have scarcely referred to some " authentic speci- 

 mens " which I possess through the liberality of botanical friends. 

 I attach little importance to "authentic specimens" in general ; and 

 it seems to me almost absurd to make them override, or even equal 

 to, printed descriptions. For instances of the confusion to which 



* Johnson says of the Bramble, — " It is taken, in popular language, for 

 any rough prickly shrub." I do not think our vulgar give so wide a sig- 

 nification to the name ; but they do not always distinguish the Bramble 

 from the Brier, — both, in some phrases, are Brambles. And so it was with 

 our older authors. For example, Drayton says, 



" Then thrice under a 3Brt£r doth creep 

 Which at both ends was rooted deep. 

 And over it three times doth leap," &c. 



This Brier is a botanical Bramble ; but, in the following quotation, the 

 Bramble of the Poet is the Briar of the Botanist : 



" But he was chaste and no lechour, 

 And sweet as is the firamlilc flour 



That bereth the red hepe." — Chaucer. 



