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I have for some time been aware that this is not always the case in 

 Rubns discolor {JV.et N.), and I have several times mentioned to my 

 friends, that one variety of this species assumed a mode of gi'owth 

 very analogous to that of the genus Rosa; and some few months since 

 I had been surprised to observe how much more usual was the bud- 

 ding of shrubs, which had previously fruited, than I was at all pre- 

 pared to believe. While making observations on this point, the last 

 part of the ' Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh ' 

 came into my hands, containing the interesting paper of Mr. Lees be- 

 before alluded to. To this gentleman is certainly due the credit of 

 pointing out a most remarkable and prevalent error respecting the ha- 

 bits of this very common genus. T have myself lately examined a 

 large number of brambles, and I am, in common with Mr. Lees, per- 

 suaded that the general rule in the fruticose .Rubi, is, that the stems 

 are not biennial. Of Rubus discolor, I have carefully scrutinized a 

 great number of plants ; and I find very generally that those which 

 have already flowered and borne fruit two years, are preparing to do 

 so again ; thus making the age of the shrub not ttvo years, but /our 

 at least. I believe in no instance do buds remain dormant, and sprout 

 from wood of more than one year's age, but that each year as long as 

 the stem lasts, some barren shoots, as well as flowering shoots, are 

 produced, from which the future shoots of both kinds proceed. The 

 larger flowering shoots or panicles are also permanent, and while the 

 flowering portion dies in the winter, the lower portion remains, and 

 gives rise to other panicles, precisely as do the secondary barren 

 shoots. The following I believe, in fact, to be the ordinary habit of 

 Rubus discolor (JV. et N.), the commonest of our English brambles. 



Tlie first years shoot from the root is a very long barren stem, 

 which roots at the end : the part nearest the end bears no buds, as a 

 general rule, capable of producing shoots, but only of rooting ; for I 

 know, from very recent observation, that not only the extreme point, 

 but also the buds near it, are capable of rooting, and occasionally do 

 so. Tlie second year, the extreme portion of the stem, that nearest 

 the rooted point above mentioned, generally dies ; the buds nearest 

 this dead portion produce panicles of flowers, the extreme ones of or- 

 dinary size, but those nearer the root — the original root — are of larger 

 size, with much branched inflorescence, and borne on very long stems, 

 which, the flowering portion at the end having perished, remain till 

 the following year, and produce panicles of ordinary size. Nearer 

 still to the root, not panicles but barren stems are produced ; these, 

 though smaller than the original ones from the root, have all the ge- 

 neral characters of primary barren shoots, and root at the end. The 



