2 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



curious, as will be seen below, that an eminent botanist, 

 publishing in 1858, returns to the precise view of the sub- 

 ject entertained in 1690 by Ray. Dillenius in his edition 

 of Ray's Synojysis (1724) added a plant from Doody's manu- 

 scripts, and supposed that there was another allied to No. 2, 

 which I have above supposed to be R. discolor. Owing to 

 the short and incomplete descriptions of the earlier botanists 

 it is very difficult to determine their plants. 



The next work which is deserving of notice is Hudson's 

 Flora Anglica, of which neither edition (1762 and 1778) 

 Contains more than the same species, namely, R. Idoeus, 

 R. fruticosus (R. discolor) and R. ccesius : nor do we find 

 any addition to them before the publication of Smith's 

 Flora Britannica (1800), where R. corylifolius^ first appears; 

 for Smith's quotation under it of Withering's Botanical 

 Arrangement (ed. 3, 1796) is of very doubtful correctness. 

 It seems to me that Withering, and those who preceded him, 

 had no clear views concerning the plants, and that more 

 than one species (probably several, as we now understand 

 them), were confounded under the name of R. fruticosus, 

 and even under its supposed variety R. fruticosus major. 

 We should not, however, forget that Mr W. Hall, had 

 published, in 1794, his R. nessensis in the Transactions of 

 the Royal Society of Edinburgh (Vol. iii.). Smith seems to 

 have been altogether ignorant of this fact ; for even in his 



^ When Smith proposed to add R. corylifolitig to the then meagre 

 list of English Ruhi it was considered as a great innovation. Dalton, 

 a botanist of eminence in his day, wrote to Winch, Oct. 26, 1804, as 

 follows : "I have long been an unbeliever with regard to Rubus cory- 

 lifolius. Brunton says that he knows the plant and believes it a good 

 species. I will talk with him on the subject and procure you a speci- 

 men from him. I have it not." Winch's Correspondence {Lin. 

 Sue. Lond.). 



