10 



There are several forms of R. discolor in this part of Surrey, but I 

 confess I can make nothing of them. R. rosaceus and hirtus are not 

 plentiful. 



It is to be regretted that so much indisposition to study this genus 

 of British plants should exist. Perhaps few tribes afford such abun- 

 dant opportunities of examining the vexed question of the nature of 

 species as this, and yet this very fact is made an objection to their 

 study ! " They are so changeable," is a common expression, " my 

 opinion is that there is not a dozen good species," is generally the 

 encouraging stimulus the student of Rubi receives. But the question 

 still remains, what is a species ? and what is a variety ? I do not 

 clearly understand what Mr. Babington's ideas of species and varie- 

 ties are, as exemplified in his Synopsis. I believe that the varieties 

 of the Synopsis are principally dependent on their aptability to ap- 

 proach some other (normal) form when growing in the same soil and 

 situation with it. I believe this was the reason for deciding R. ves- 

 titus of the i Rubi Germanici,' and R. villicaulis of Babington's 

 Manual, as mere varieties of R. leucostachys (Sm.). I find this 

 "var." argenteus growing in a wet ditch by the side of the Thames at 

 Mortlake, and exactly agreeing with a specimen gathered in a dry 

 wood near Ryde. If argenteus is R. leucostachys, and merely vary- 

 ing through difference in its place of growth, whence the circum- 

 stance I have related ? or will different situations produce the same 

 result ? 



We gardeners, who are in the habit of raising seedlings of florists 1 

 flowers, generally understand a variety to be a form produced from 

 seed, and capable of reproducing seed, differing in some respects from 

 its parent, in contradistinction to a mule or hybrid, which is not ca- 

 pable of reproducing seed. If this be the true definition of a variety, 

 can these so-called varieties of Rubi be considered as truly such ? 

 The various varieties of the apple, the gooseberry and other fruit-trees 

 still retain their several characteristics, although grown in the same 

 soil and situations together, and why should not true varieties of 

 Rubi ? 



Thomas Meehan. 



Kew, December 1 7th, 1847. 



