74 



5-uate, on slightly hairy, purple petioles, armed with numerous strong, 

 long, hooked prickles, purple at the base, yellow at the tips. Leaf- 

 lets moderately coriaceous, yet flexible, plane at the base, more or 

 less wavy on the margins towards the apex (in a young or not fully 

 expanded or developed state very plicate), all stalked, dull green and 

 nearly glabrous, or with only a few scattered hairs above, paler, to- 

 mentose, and with soft, silky, shining pubescence beneath, veins pro- 

 minent, the midrib armed with a few stout, hooked prickles, not so 

 long or stout as those on the petioles. Terminal leaflet large, broadly 

 cordato-ovate or even orbiculari-cordate, generally shortly cuspidate, 

 coarsely crenato-cuspidato-serrated : intermediate pair irregularly 

 roundish-obovate ; lowermost narrower, oblong. Stipules linear, 

 with a long point, hairy. Flowering stem angular, with scattered 

 hairs below, which become denser and even tomentose above. Leaves 

 ternate below, large and simple above, becoming narrower as they 

 approach the extremity of the rachis. Panicle compound, leafy, 

 branches cymose, ascending, erecto-patent, hairy, the secondary 

 branches and pedicels hairy and densely tomentose. Prickles large, 

 from a broad, compressed base, rather numerous, deflexed below, 

 straighter and declinate in the upper part : those of the secondary 

 branches and pedicels slenderer and more crowded, more or less 

 curved, or even nearly straight and declinate. Sepals densely tomen- 

 tose and hairy, white, and with a few short, slender prickles without, 

 white and densely tomentose within, with a long acuminate point, 

 strongly reflexed in fruit. Petals white. Fruit black. 



This plant seems allied on one side to R. cordifolius, and on the 

 other to R. plicatus, though readily distinguished from both. The 

 somewhat plicate leaves, which are of a very different cordate form, 

 easily perceived on comparison, but difficult to express in words, and 

 their differently formed and much coarser serratures, the cymose pa- 

 nicle, and the strong, deflexed prickles on the panicle and flowering 

 shoot, separate it from cordifolius, in which the leaves are flat and 

 less coarsely serrated, of a different cordate outline, the barren stems 

 always arcuate, and the prickles on the rather long panicle and flow- 

 ering shoot slenderer, all straight and declining. 



The form and serratures of the leaves, the hairy and densely tomen- 

 tose panicle and calyx, and the strong prickles of the barren stem, 

 distinguish it from plicatus, in which the panicle is pilose, and wants 

 the under coating of tomentum, the barren stems have slender 

 prickles, and the sepals are scatteredly hairy on the outside, chiefly 



