RUBUS 453 



bramble is one of the commonest and most generally distributed in Great Britain. It is 

 also one of the handsomest. (RHAMNIFOLII group.) 



R. RUDIS, Wiehe and Nees. A shrub with sub-prostrate or low arching stems of 

 dark purplish colour, armed with short decurved prickles, and furnished with numerous 

 stalked glands. Leaves large among brambles, and composed of three or five leaflets. 

 Leaflets whitish downy beneath, becoming greenish, the terminal one oval or obovate, 

 with a slenderly tapered point, doubly toothed. Flowers pink, borne on a loose, wide 

 panicle, the stalks downy and thickly furnished with shortly stalked glands. Fruit 

 small. Common in the south of England, and wild in the neighbourhood of Kew. 

 Distinguished by its thickly glanded stems and inflorescence. Nearly allied to and 

 sometimes confused with it, but more widely spread northwards, is 



R. ECHINATUS. Lindley. This also has glandular stems and panicles, but the latter 

 are cylindrical. Flowers pink, with much-reflexed sepals. It occurs as far north as 

 Elgin. (RADUL.E group ) 



R. SILVATICUS, Wiehe and Nees. A shrub with low arching or prostrate stems, 

 angular on the upper side, more or less furnished with pale hairs, and armed with stout 

 deflexed prickles. Leaflets five, hairy on both sides, narrowly obovate or oval, long- 

 pointed, coarsely and irregularly toothed. Flowers whfte, sometimes pinkish, produced 

 on a long panicle which is furnished with small, needle-like prickles and coarse hairs on 

 the flower-stalks. Sepals beneath the fruit reflexed. Found chiefly in the West of 

 England and in Wales. (SlLVATlCI group.) 



R. SUBERECTUS, Andersson. A strong-growing tall shrub, with sub-erect, distinctly 

 angular stems, sparsely armed with short conical prickles set upon the angles. Leaves 

 with from three to seven leaflets, which are thin, glossy, rather evenly toothed, lowest 

 pair scarcely stalked. Flowers red in the bud state, afterwards white, produced in large 

 racemes. Stamens longer than the style. Fruit dark red, sometimes almost black. 

 Widely spread in North and Central Europe. It does not naturally root at the tips of 

 the shoots. (SuBERECTi group.) 



R. VILLICAULIS, Koehler. Stems prominently angled, arching, clothed with brown 

 hairs, and armed with numerous long, mostly straight prickles. Leaflets three or five, 

 borne on a very long main-stalk ; they are of thick texture, covered beneath with long 

 silky hairs or felt. Flowers pale pink or w r hite (the petals obovate, the sepals reflexed), 

 borne in a large panicle, the stalks of which are felted with down and abundantly armed 

 with hooked prickles. Fruit of very good quality. A common bramble in Scotland, 

 less so in the West of England. (VlLLlCAULES group.) 



The following British species will- be found described in their order : 

 caesius, Idceus, laciniatus, thyrsoideus, ulmifolius. 



R, ADENOPHORUS, Rolfe. 



(R. sagatus, Focke.} 



A robust bramble, deciduous, 8 ft. or more high ; stems erect or arching 

 towards the top, stout, armed with stiff, short, broad-based spines, densely 

 clothed with bristles, and with stalked glands. Leaves of the first-year (or 

 barren) shoots mostly pinnate, 8 to 12 ins. long, with five leaflets ; those of 

 the flowering shoots shorter, with three leaflets or sometimes simple. Leaflets 

 obliquely obovate or ovate ; 2 to 5 ins. long, ij to 3^ ins. wide ; tapered, 

 rounded, or heart-shaped at the base ; slender-pointed, sharply and doubly 

 toothed, dull and hairy on both sides ; main-stalk bristly and furnished with 

 stalked glands like the shoots. Flowers produced in July in terminal, 

 cylindrical panicles 4 or 5 ins. long, the petals pink, toothed, the flower-stalks 

 and calyx densely clothed with bristles and stalked glands. Fruit black, 

 about \ in. wide, edible. 



Native of W. Hupeh ; introduced by Wilson in 1907. The most remark- 

 able feature of this bramble are the conspicuous dark glands, resembling 

 minute black-headed pins, stuck among the bristles on the stems and leaf- 

 stalks, but extraordinarily abundant on the sepals and flower-stalks. The 

 leaf next to the panicle is often simple. 



