131 



Observations on the Genus Riihiis ; with a Notice of the Species ob- 

 served during three days at Selborne. By T. Bell Salter, 

 M.D., F.L.S. 



(Concluded from p. 108). 



RvBus Schleicher i (W. & N.) should have been marked in the list 

 with a point of doubt ; for although it is certainly the plant so named 

 by Leighton, on the authority of Nees von Esenbeck himself, — as I 

 have tested by comparing specimens together, — yet I cannot feel per- 

 fectly satisfied of its being the same that is represented by this name 

 in the ' Rubi Germanici.' The first short description in that work 

 agrees very tolerably both with Mr. Leighton's plant and that of Sel- 

 borne, which is decidedly the same form as his, but neither the more 

 lengthened description of those authors, nor their figure,* agree en- 

 tirely with the English specimens. Yet Nees named Leighton's spe- 

 cimen very confidently, and adds that it is a good species.f 



There being no description of this plant in any of our general 

 Floras, I copy the following excellent one from Leighton's admirable 

 local Flora. 



" Stem arched " or " prostrate," obsoletely angular, nearly " round, 

 with scattered hairs and glandular bristles ; prickles scattered, very 

 unequal, diminishing insensibly into setae, straight and horizontal or 

 slightly recurved ; leaves quinato-pedate or ternate, lateral leaflets of- 

 ten two-lobed, obovato-acuminate, central leaflet roundish, narrower 

 and subcordate at the base, acuminate, hairy above, green, soft and 

 pubescent beneath ; panicle compound, upper branches single-flow- 

 ered, very hairy, glandular, setose and prickly ; jioral leaves ternate, 

 central leaflet obovato-acuminate, upper ones simple ; calyx reflexed 

 in flower, erect and clasping the fruit, hoary, hairy, glandular and se- 

 tose ; fruit nearly globular, grains large, black." 4 



To this description I only add that the barren shoot is slightly 

 glaucous, and that the prickles of the panicle are numerous, long, 

 straight and deflected. 



The nearest affinity appears to be with R. Koehleri ( W. 8f N.), be- 

 tween which and R. csesius (Z.) this holds a middle rank. Babington 

 accounts it to be a variety of R. dumetorum {TV. 8f N.), but I much 

 more incline to the belief of its being a variety of R. Koehleri, which, 

 in the character of the panicle, it very strongly resembles. Our Eng- 



* Rubi Geraianici, p. 68, tab. xxiii. 

 t Leighton's Shropshire Flora, p. 237. J Ibid. 



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