1056 



Rubis saxatilis occurs occasionally in the narrow valleys above 

 Pont Nedd vechan, and R. subcrectus soon after leaving the Merthyr 

 road, in order to ascend Pen-y-Craig. I did not see R. plicatus any- 

 where in Wales. 



From Pont-nedd-vechan I went to Pyle, hoping to find something 

 among the Rubi of the magnesian limestone ; but I was disappointed. 

 R. discolor grows very luxuriantly near the little stream. Some of 

 the flowering branches must have been above five feet long, of which 

 the branched panicle occupied at least two. 



My next station was Sully, south of Cardiff. Here R. csesius is 

 abundant, as it is in Monmouthshire, and often without hairs or sejre, 

 apparently the R. tenuis of Babington. A somewhat remarkable form 

 of Rubus with some resemblance to some of the forms of R. corylifolius 

 is found along the shore. The stem is slightly hairy with stellate 

 hairs, like those of R. discolor, but with a mixture of single hairs, 

 each tipped with a gland. The stem has a tendency to be pruinose. 

 It suggested to me the idea of its being a hybrid between R. discolor 

 and R. caesius, both of which are common in the neighbourhood. 



At Caerphilly I saw nothing among the Rubi different from what I 

 had already observed, and having hurt my foot I could not scramble 

 much after them. At Newport, I observed two forms which seemed 

 to deserve notice. One had the pubescence and nearly the panicle of 

 R. discolor, but the stem on the old shoot had eight slight furrows, 

 instead of as usual, being five-sided, and that on the new shoots was 

 armed with very unequal, but not very numerous prickles. I cannot 

 pretend to assign a name to it. The other is, I think, distinctly R. 

 hirtus, and I met with it again at Ragland and at Monmouth. At 

 Ragland also I met with a Rubus with a hairy stem, and nearly equal 

 angular prickles, but differing from R. rhamnifolius and R. leucosta- 

 chys, in having uniformly, at least as far as I could trace it, only three 

 narrow leafits. The panicle is hardly corymbose and the prickles are 

 nearly straight. With respect to the last character, it is to be ob- 

 served, that when a branch is preparing to take root, sometimes even 

 before any fibres are thrown out, the direction of the prickles and 

 leaves towards the extremity is reversed, and next to these we find 

 the leaves set on horizontally, and the prickles which ought to be 

 deflexed or recurved, are horizontal and nearly straight, as if nature 

 had not determined which way she should turn them. 



At Monmouth, besides the plants already mentioned, I gathered a 

 setigerous Rubus, with a very widely- spreading and leafy panicle. 

 Perhaps a variety of R. Radula, and another which agrees pretty well 



