BRAMBLE. 



RUBUS. 



POTENTILLE^E. ICOSANDHIA POLYGYNIA. 



Rubus, from the redness of the twigs, or of the juice of the 

 fruit. French, ronce ; Italian, rogo. 



THE Common Bramble, Rubus fruticosus, so well 

 known in our hedges, by every child in the country, as 

 the mother of the blackberry, is sometimes found very 

 useful to defend whitethorn or other hedges from sheep, 

 cattle, &c. The green twigs yield a black dye; and, 

 where mulberry-leaves are not to be had, these are often 

 substituted as a food for silkworms. The berries, in 

 addition to their common name of blackberry, are, in 

 some places, called bumblekites ; in others scaldberries, 

 from their supposed quality of giving scald-heads to 

 children who eat profusely of them. 



Cowper used to feed upon them, as he tells us, when 

 he played truant from school: 



" For I have loved the rural walk through lanes 

 Of grassy swarth, close cropp'd by nibbling^sheep, 

 And skirted thick with intertexture firm 

 Of thorny boughs ; have loved the rural walk 

 O'er hills, through valleys, and by rivers' brink, 

 E'er since a truant boy I passed my bounds, 

 To enjoy a ramble on the banks of Thames : 

 And still remember, nor without regret, 

 Of hours that sorrow since has much endeared, 

 How oft, my slice of pocket-store consumed, 

 Still hungering, pennyless and far from home, 



