INTRODUCTION. 21 



seedling Ruhl have frequently sprung up here and there in 

 the hedgerows, although they are never allowed to fruit, 

 and the roots are removed every winter as completely as 

 possible. 



More than forty of the supposed species have been raised 

 from seeds in the Cambridge Botanic Garden, and the pro- 

 duce has not varied in form or characters from the parent 

 plants. The seeds were sown in the autumn, and the young 

 plants usually appeared in the succeeding May or June. 

 The seedlings have two little oval cotyledons, and produce 

 a small cluster of simple leaves in the course of the first 

 summer. In the second summer short slender shoots spring 

 from the terminal bud and the axils of the leaves in the 

 cluster and bear ternate or sometimes a few quinate 

 leaves. In the third summer these shoots bear small pani- 

 cles; and the root throws up the strong stems of adult 

 plants, which, in the fourth summer, bear the perfect pani- 

 cles proper to the species. Although most of the stems die 

 down to their base after they have produced panicles, that is 

 far from being constantly the case when the stem has not suc- 

 ceeded in rooting at its end. It may continue to live for 

 many years, throwing out secondary and tertiary stems, 

 which bear panicles. But when it has rooted, only the lower 

 part seems able to survive the succeeding winter, and the 

 new plant formed at its end becomes detached. 



On the other hand, some persons fancy that the inclina- 

 tion of these plants to produce fertile seeds is so strong as to 

 result in abundant hybridity; and by that, combined with 

 increase of the inaividual by offsets, they account for the 

 many forms which are found in the genus. It is my belief 

 that this latter view is also unfounded; and that the produc- 

 tion of hybrids is as repugnant to Brambles as it is to most 



