46 2. R LEESII. 



having small roundly obovate blunt leaflets, all very shortly 

 stalked, but the stalk of the terminal leaflet rather the 

 longest. Flowers in a lax simple raceme of which o^e or 

 two of the lowest peduncles are axillary. Peduncles with 

 small and very slightly deflexed prickles. Sepals oblong, 

 often more than five in number, in which case they are 

 linear, cuspidate, greenish white and felted on both sides ; 

 the point slender, short, slightly reflexed, glabrous. Petals 

 spatliulate, acute, white. Stamens and styles, white. Fruit 

 rarely produced, of few crimson drupels with the taste of 

 Easpberry, and doubtfully perfect. One or two drupels 

 gathered in 1865, in the Cambridge Botanic Garden, seemed 

 to contain seeds. 



Plants which creep extensively underground often do not 

 produce much fruit j but, bearing in mind that the close 

 ally of this plant {R. Idceus) fruits abundantly, the fact that 

 R. Leesii rarely attempts the formation of fruit, and that 

 even when its drupes are apparently well ripened they seem 

 to be usually devoid of any perfected seed, we are led to 

 suspect its distinctness as a species. Should it really be a 

 state of R. Idceus it must be considered as exceedingly 

 curious. All the trifoliate forms of R. Idmus, with perhaps 

 one exception, difier remarkably from R. Leesii by having a 

 very long stalk to their terminal leaflet ; also, if placed side 

 by side with R. Leesii, the leaflets are seen to have very 

 little similarity, however difficult it may be to convey an 

 idea of the difierence by description. The exception referred 

 to is the R. Idceus c. anomalus of Arrhenius {Jlon. 14), 

 which is stated to have usually " folia plerumque simplicia 

 cordato-rotundata vel reniformia;... folia ternata imis duobus 

 breviter petiolatis, . . . extimo mediocriter petiolato subro- 

 tundo." If we could suppose that these words are intended 

 to describe the leaves of the flowering shoot alone, there 

 would be little doubt of the identity of the R. Leesii with 



