PROPAGATION OF RUBI. 377 
were diandrous, but several had three, and a few even four stamens. I 
fancy I have seen one flower with a 5 -cleft calyx, but from the minute- 
ness of the same it was blown away before I could ascertain this point 
satisfactorily. 
Botanic Garden, Calcutta, September. 
PROPAGATION OF RUBI. 
I learn from one of our most distinguished botanists that the curious 
mode in which some brambles root at the end of their surculi in the 
autumn, is not generally, if at all, known to botanists. It may there- 
fore be well to describe it very shortly, especially as my work on tni 
British Rubi is unavoidably delayed for some time longer. 
It is known to every one that the European fruticose Rubi mostly 
produce long arching shoots in one year, upon which the flowering 
shoots of the succeeding year grow. It is also well known that these 
shoots endeavour to reach the ground in autumu, and do so unless 
prevented by some obstacle. In nearly all cases they arrive there some 
weeks before their growth is ended, and in some species the arch, if 
not artificially supported, is very short and low. The surculus on 
reaching the ground early in the summer, runs along the ground, and 
often follows all its inequalities until the autumn. It then raises its 
cud, and forms a very small but decided arch, so as to present its 
point vertically to the earth, into which it enters for an inch or more. 
The part, thus naturally buried, then becomes thick and fleshy, and 
emits roots. During the winter the living connection between the old 
root and the rooted fleshy end of the stem ceases, by the death of the 
voun-er part of the surculus. In the next spring, surculi rise from 
this new and now independent rootstock, similar to those from the 
parent root. , . 
The peculiarity is, that the stem forms a large arch at its base, then 
runs along the ground, and ends in a small arch, for the purpose of 
presenting its end in a direct way to the ground, so that its point may 
penetrant ami be enabled to take root.-C. 0. Babinotom. 
