ROSACBJJ. 185 



approximate to the glandulose species. The erect or arching 

 habits of the stem are as much subject to variation as its inves- 

 titure. The Raspberry Bramble is united to the hazel-leaved 

 group (R. coRYLiFOLii) by the suberect species. It is obvious 

 that the arching of the stem depends on its length, and on the 

 solidity or hardness and toughness of its central portion. The 

 Dog-rose shows this tendency to bend and form an arch when it 

 exceeds the plants amongst which it grows ; and the weight of 

 the top, or of the more leafy, succulent portions bends down the 

 centre. This bending or arching of the stem is common to all 

 Brambles, and to all climbing plants of a moderate strength of 

 stem. In shady places, and in a rich soil, the Raspberry -plant 

 assumes a luxuriant habit, and then the stem is bent by the na- 

 tural tendency of all bodies to gravitate toward the centre of the 

 earth, unless prevented by some counteracting medium. R. 

 id(Eus generally, in a natural state, grows in open heathy places, 

 and in tufts, consequently they mutually support each other. 

 Finally, the reproductive organs are as fallacious as the vegeta- 

 tive organs, and afford insufficient characters for the determina- 

 tion of species. The calyx does not universally embrace the 

 fruit ; even where this is usually the case, there are exceptions 

 which render this an insecure specific character. The fruit itself 

 is not uniform on the same individual. There is sometimes only 

 one large drupe, as is frequently the case in R. saxatilis, and not 

 seldom in R. casius ; sometimes there are many. The shape, 

 the size, the colour, the bloom, are all liable to the same muta- 

 bility. The ancient division of the British shrubby Brambles 

 into R. idaus, R. fr'uiicosus, R. corylifolius, would be quite as 

 unsatisfactory as the present division, nomenclature, and descrip- 

 tion of the Rubi iraquestionably and confessedly are. The three 

 fruticose Rubi of Ray's Catalogue are liable to the same objec- 

 tion as the eleven species of the English Flora, viz. that it is 

 impossible to draw up specific characters from an individual 

 plant, which characters will be equally applicable to all plants of 

 the reputed species to which the said individual belongs ; or, in 

 other terms, sufficiently comprehensive characters are not ob- 

 tainable from any one plant of the shrubby kind. The descrip- 

 tion must necessarily either be too general, and consequently in- 

 clude other forms or species besides the one intended, or be too 

 special ; that is, the portrait or exact description of an individual, 

 24 2 b 



