92 10. R. IMBRICATUS. 



slender deflexed prickles beneath. Panicle rather narrow, 

 slightly hairy below, very hairy but scarcely, if at all, felted at 

 the top, but the very top of the panicle and the peduncles are 

 furnished with a thin coat of stellate hairs, amongst which are 

 many sunken setse ; floral leaves often simple, cordate, some- 

 what three-lobed; prickles few, short, slender, declining, 

 from a long compressed base; branches falling short of the 

 leaves, racemose, ascending, 3 or 4 lowest axillary and 

 distant, uppermost subcorymbose or even single-flowered. 

 Sepals ovate, abruptly cuspidate, with a short linear point, 

 or naiTOwly leaf-pointed, clothed with ashy felt and having an 

 occasional minute prickle. Petals obovate, narrowed to their 

 base, white, notched at the end. Styles greenish yellow 

 below. Primordial fruit-stalk longer than the calyx. Pri- 

 mordial fruit rather small, subglobose, glossy black. 



The Rev. F. J. A. Hort has taken great pains to dis- 

 tinguish this plant from its allies, and as an isolated paper 

 is not unlikely to be overlooked,, it is desirable to transfer a 

 portion of his remarks to this place. He says "It is closely 

 allied to R. ajinis, P. cordifolius [R. rhainiiifolius], and P. 

 incurvatus. On a hasty inspection it might probably be 

 referred to P. corylifolius, but there is in reality a wide gap 

 between them, the latter species being rightly referred to 

 the group of Ccesii. It is often difficult to distinguish dried 

 specimens of P. imbricatus and the three species above 

 mentioned, although no one accustomed to Brambles could 

 confound them when growing. The present plant may be 

 known from the larger and more typical forms of the protean 

 P. affinis by the structure of the branches of the panicle, 

 which are racemose and not cymose, and their much slighter 

 degree of divarication from the rachis, and by the sepals 

 being abruptly cuspidate and not gradually acuminate; (to 

 the less developed forms which apparently constitute Mr 

 Lees's P. lentiginosus, having suberect stems and nearly 



