HISTORICAL SKETCH. O 



supposed species to the position of synonyms. In what is 

 called a third edition of the Synopsis there is no altera- 

 tion. 



A most valuable account of the Brambles, from the pen 

 of Mr Borrer, was published in the second (1831) and 

 third (1835) editions of Hooker's British Flora. This must 

 be considered as the groundwork upon which a real know- 

 ledge of our native species is founded, and I have derived 

 very great advantage from its study. In the fourth and 

 fifth editions of the British Flora only a very short abstract 

 of Mr Borrer's "copious observations" will be found; in 

 the sixth and seventh they are altogether neglected, and 

 a note is inserted stating that the authors (for then Dr 

 Walker- A rnott was associated with Sir W. J. Hooker in 

 the authorship of the book) are *' Almost quite convinced 

 ...that the characters... are not permanent," and that the re- 

 puted species are not " physiologically distinct, all passing 

 into each other without any fixed assignable limit;" and, 

 " from a consideration of what is requisite to constitute 

 a difference between the other Europsean species of Ruhus, 

 that all of the present section [the Fi^ticosi] are mere va- 

 rieties approaching on the one side the E. Idceus, on the 

 other to R. saxatilis, with both of which many fertile and 

 permanent hybrids may have been formed, and are still 

 forming" (Brit. Fl ed. 6, p. 120; ed. 7, p. 122). This view 

 had previously been carried out to its legitimate conclusion 

 by Spenner in his Flora Frihunjensis (1829), where, under 

 the name of R. polymorphus, all our Ruhi FriUicosi are 

 combined. Spenner says nothing about hybrids, but places 

 what he believes to be one variable species in the same 

 rank with R. Idceus and R. saxatilis. It seems probable 

 that this was the view also taken by Messrs Hooker and Ar- 



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