92 



third year, panicles and barren shoots are produced, but the latter 

 are very short, and, I believe, never I'ooting ; — to use the words of 

 Mr. Lees, " the vital principle seems considerably diminished the third 

 year, and so gradually dies out." Beyond the fourth year of duration 

 and the third of flowering, I have as yet noticed no conclusive instance, 

 but Mr. Lees, whose attention has been longer directed to this point, 

 mentions that their duration is sometimes continued to a much longer 

 period. 



I have chosen this species — Rubus discolor — from which to de- 

 scribe these habits, partly because I have had most opportunity of 

 observing it of late, and partly because this kind of growth appears to 

 be more developed in this than in some other species ; still, I have 

 sufficient opportunity for observing that the greater part at least of the 

 ordinary species are by no means biennial only. 



Perhaps the one most removed of all from that habit of growth now 

 newly described, is Rubus Idaeus, and this, probably almost without 

 exception, produces stems which flower the second year, and then 

 perish. I am informed, however, by my friend Mr. John Lawrence, 

 the highly intelligent gardener at St. John's, near Ryde, of one point 

 in which this species maintains some analogy with the others. He 

 informs me that there is one variety, called the double-fruited rasp- 

 berry, which produces flowers and fruit at the extremity of the annual 

 shoot ; the part which has flowered perishes, and the lower part per- 

 sisting through the winter, produces lateral panicles the following 

 year, as in the ordinary state of the plant. Here then we have an 

 analogy to the circumstance of the lower part of a long panicle, for 

 such an annual flowering shoot may be fairly considered, remaining 

 till another year, and producing secondary ones; but I know of no in- 

 stance of the stem of a raspberry producing the second year seconda- 

 ry barren shoots, although I have little or no doubt that under certain 

 circumstances it would do so. There are always some buds lower 

 than those which produce the flowering branches or panicles ; there 

 can be no reason to doubt that these would produce sterile shoots if 

 the upper part were prevented from blossoming, and thus prolong the 

 lower part of the original shoot till a third year. I have lately cut off" 

 all the blossom-buds of several plants, to ascertain if in this second 

 particular also, this species will bear out the analogy with the arch- 

 ing forms. Perhaps some other of the readers of the 'Phytologist' 

 would do the same, and thus assist me in ascertaining this point. 



T. Bell Salter. 



Eyde, Isle of Wight, February 11, 1845. 



(To be continued). 



