734 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART HI. 



The number of species of J?iibus described by Sir J. E. Smith in the last 

 edition of his English Botany, published in 1824, as natives of England, are 

 14: Dr. Hooker, in his British Flora, published in 1831, enumerates 13; 

 and Dr. Lindley, in his Synopsis of the British Flora, 2d edit., published in 

 1835, 21 ; which, he says, maybe reduced to 5, or possibly to 2, exclusive of 

 the herbaceous species. In our Hortus Britanvicus, 68 species are enumerated, 

 as having been introduced into Britain ; and in Don^s Miller, 147, as the total 

 number described by botanists. 



The remarks which Dr. Lindley has made on this subject appear to us 

 extremely interesting and valuable, not only with reference to the genus 

 iJubus, but to all genera that contain numerous species. Following out the 

 principles laid down in the elaborate monograph of Weihe and Nees von 

 Esenbeck, Dr. Lindley, in the first edition of his British Flora, advanced the 

 number of British species to 23 ; "certainly," he observes, " not from any 

 expectation that such species were either genuine, or likely to prove perma- 

 nent, but with a view of following out the recognised principles of distinc- 

 tion, and showing whither they nmst inevitably lead." In the second edition, 

 he observes : " This proceeding has not found favour in the eyes of those 

 from whom I most expected applause : .... it has had one good effect how- 

 ever ; .... it has led rne to consider the subject very carefully, and to examine 

 with more attention the nature of the principles upon which the modern and 

 recognised species of 7?ubu3 have been established ; I have also had six years 

 of additional experience ; and I am bound to declare, that I can come to no 

 other conclusion than that with which I first started ; namely, that we have 

 to choose between considering R. suberectus, R. fruticosus, R. corylifolius, 

 and R. cse^sius, the only genuine species ; or adopting, in a great measure, the 

 characters of the learned German botanists, Weihe and Nees von Esenbeck, 

 who have so much distinguished themselves in the elaboration of the genus. 

 So clear is my opinion upon this point, that, if it had been possible to prove 

 the four species to which I have alluded to be themselves physiologically dis- 

 tinct, I should at once have reduced all the others to their original species; 

 but, as it is in the highest degree uncertain whether R. fruticosus, R. roryli- 

 folius, and R. cic'sius are not as much varieties of each other as those which 

 it would be necessary to reject, I have thought it better to steer a middle 

 course, until some j)roofs\\d\\ have been obtained either one way or the other. 

 Accordingly, as will be seen by what follows, I have taken R. fruticosus, R, 

 rorylifolius, R, cai^sius, and R. suberectus as heads of sections ; and I have 

 assigned to them characters which may be considered either as sectional or 

 specific, according as the evidence may ultimately preponderate. I have also 

 arranged as species under them those forms which are the best marked, and 

 the most certainly distinguishable. This will bring the genus 7?ubus somewhat 

 into the situation of i?6sa; in which, I fear, we must be satisfied with leaving 

 it for the present." (Lind. Synop. Brit. FL, 2d edition, p. 92.) It appears to 

 us highly probable, that the four forms mentioned above are only varieties of 

 the same species ; and this would reduce the ligneous British rubuses to the 

 raspberry and the bramble. The species exclusively North American, as far 

 as we have observed them in the garden of the Horticultural Society, include 

 four with the habit of raspberry, and three with the habit of the bramble ; 

 but the latter three, R. flagellaris, R. inermis, and R. setosus, are probably 

 only varieties of the same species. The Nepal rubuses, as far as they have 

 been hitherto introduced, are all brambles ; but there is one, R. concolor, 

 which, Mr. Royle observes, is found on lofty mountains, and comes near to 

 the raspberry. R. micranthus is, perhaps, the only distinct species of Nepal 

 bramble that has been introduced ; some plants, raised from Nepal seeds, 

 which may be observed in the Chelsea Botanic Garden, and in the garden of 

 the Horticultural Society, being evidently nothing more than varieties of the 

 British bramble. The course which we have adopted with respect to the 

 ligneous species of this genus is, to give, first, a descriptive enumeration of all 

 the ligneous species or varieties, indigenous or introduced, elaborated from 



