1,34 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



suffice it for our present purpose to take what may fairly 

 he called the ordinary type, that known to some botanists 

 as the Eubus fruticosus, or common bramble. 



The root-stock of the blackberry is perennial ; from this 

 the flowering stems are produced; these are ordinarily 

 biennial, and grow woody in substance. Though at times 

 found shooting upward and maintaining the erect position, 

 they are more often rather wild and straggling-looking, 

 sometimes arching so much as to touch the ground, when 

 they root afresh and throw up new shoots. The stem is 

 generally pentangular in section, though the angles are 

 not always clearly developed, and it is often lavishly fur- 

 nished with prickles, whose powers are well enough known 

 to those who have ever tasted the delights of " going 

 blackberrying/' A delicate and beautiful lilac bloom is 

 often found on these stems ; at other times they may be 

 found a delicate pink or pale greenish-grey. Where the 

 stem is clearly angular it will generally be noticed that 

 the prickles, abundant as they are, are only met with on 

 the angles themselves. The leaves are usually composed 

 of five leaflets, a central and two lateral ones, all of 

 about the same size, and beneath these a pair which 

 are generally considerably smaller. At other times this 

 second pair of laterals is missing, and only indicated by 

 a boldly projecting lobe on the lower edge of the other 

 pair. In the upper leaves the leaflets are often only three 

 in number, as may be seen in our illustration, though 

 even there a slightly projecting serration or two from 

 the lower edges gives what we may term a suggestion of 

 the missing pair. Not only the leaf-stems, but often even 

 the midribs of the leaves on their lower surface, are armed 

 with sharp prickles, while the general under-surface of the 



