HISTOEICAL SKETCH. 



A SHORT account of the progress made in the study of 

 the fruticose Brambles by English botauists ^\^ll jorobably 

 possess some interest. We may commence with our great 

 naturalist Ray. In his earliest work, Cataloyus PlanUirum 

 circa Cantabrigiam nascentium (1660), he records two species 

 {\) R. liiinor fructu cceruleo \_R. ccesius Linn.], and (2) Eubiis 

 [li. discolor W. and N.] ; in his Catalogus Plantarum An- 

 ylice (1670) four are recorded, viz. the same two, and it. 

 Idceus, and R. al2?inus humilis \R. saxatilis Linn.]; in the 

 Synopsis Methodica (1690) he separates it. saxatilis from the 

 other species because of its being herbaceous, placing it in the 

 same grou]) with R. ChamcHmorus, thus leaving three fruticose 

 species. To these he added in the 3rd edition of the SyTwpsis 

 (1724) a white-fruited plant found near Oxford by Bobart, 

 which cannot have been more than a chance variety of some 

 species, and is not now capable of determination. It may 

 very probably have belonged to it. thyrsoideus [R. fruticosus 

 W. and N.); for there is a variety of that plant named 

 '•'- leucocarpus^ carpellis albis" recorded by Seringe in De 

 Candolle's Prodromus (ii. 561). He seems therefore not to 

 have distinguished more than three real species. It is 



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