CLASS XII. ORDER III. J RUBUS. 729 



While silent showers are falling slow, 



And, 'mid the general hush, 

 A sweet air lifts the little bough, 



Lone whispering through the bush ! 

 The primrose to the grave is gone ; 



The hawthorn flower is dead ; 

 The violet by the moss'd grey stone 



Hath laid her weary head ; 

 But thou, Wild Bramble ! back dost bring, 



In all their beauteous power, 

 The fresh green days of life's fair spring, 



And boyhood's blossomy hour. 

 Scorned bramble of the brake ! once more 



Thou bidd'st me be a boy, 

 To gad with thee the woodlands o'er, 



In freedom and in joy. 



11. R. cce'sius, Linn. (Fig. 825.) Dewberry. Stem prostrate, round, 

 or nearly so, glaucous ; prickles slender, straight, unequal, passing 

 insensibly into setfe; leaflets three, rarely five, the outer ones sessile, 

 ovate, often lobed, soft and downy beneath ; calyx embracing the fruit. 



English Botany, t. 826. English Flora, vol. ii. p. 410. Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed. 3. vol. i. p. 251. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 94. 



/3. hirtus. Branches covered with long hairs and glandular bristles. 



R. hirtus. Waldst and Ketaih. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 94. 



y. dumetorum. Stem stronger, obsoletely, angular ; branches with 

 scarcely any bristles ; stem leaves with five leaflets ; panicle leafy, 

 straggling. . 



R. dumetorum. VVeihe and Nees. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 94.' 



Stem weak, slender, prostrate, branched, and rooting, round, some- 

 times obtusely angular, of a pale glaucous green, often becoming by 

 exposure a reddish brown, downy, more or less bristly, and setose, with 

 a few or numerous prickles, which are very unequal, scattered, slender, 

 straight, horizontal, or more or less deflexed, never hooked. Leaves 

 with a stout round scarcely channeled common footstalk, downy, 

 bristly, and mostly armed with a few slender prickles, leaflets mostly 

 three, sometimes five, and then the outer ones are sessile, the others on 

 short stalks, ovate, or ovate lanceolate, sometimes rounded, unequally 

 serrated, often lobed, and cut, the middle one mostly cordate at the 

 base, the upper surface a light cheerful green, smooth, or slightly 

 downy, paler beneath, the floral ones sometimes almost white, with 

 strong prominent ribs, and more or less thickly clothed with loose 

 spreading shining pubescence. Panicle corymbose, mostly of but 

 few flowers, the branches clothed with hairs and down, intermixed 

 with glandular bristles, in greater or less abundance, and slender 

 prickles. Calyx of five ovate lanceolate segments, with long narrow 

 points, clothed and armed like the branches, spreading in flowers, 

 closed over the fruit when ripe. Petals white or piukisb, ovate oblong, 



