xxvi. ROSACEJE: 



311 



Sect. III. POTENTI'LLE^;. 

 GENUS IX. 



#IPBUS L. THE BRAMBLE. Lin. Syst. Icosandria Polygynia. 



Identification. Lin. Gen , No.364. ; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 556. ; Don's Mill., 2. p. 59 . 



Synonymes. Ronce, Framboisier, Fr. ; Himbeere, Brombeerstrauch, Ger. 



Derivation. From rub, red in Celtic ; in reference to the colour of the fruit in some of the species. 



Gen. Char. Calyx flattish at the bottom, 5-cleft. Petals 5. Stamens numerous, 

 inserted in the calyx along with the petals. Carpels or Achenia numerous, 

 fleshy, disposed in a head upon an elevated torus. Styles lateral, near the 

 apex of the carpel. (Don's Mill.) 



Leaves compound, digitate, pinnate or lobed, stipulate, deciduous or sub- 

 evergreen ; with the leaflets usually stalked. Flowers white or pink, in 

 terminal racemes. Fruit edible. 



Shrubs, deciduous, subiigneous, with prickly stems ; for the most part pro- 

 strate, but a few of them growing upright. Some of them, such as R. fruti- 

 cosus, may be considered as sub-evergeen, as they retain the greater part of 

 their leaves in a green state through the winter. All the kinds popularly 

 called brambles may be considered as gigantic strawberry plants ; and all 

 their shoots are used by thatchers, and makers of beehives, straw mats, 

 c. No less than 48 supposed species of the genus are described and figured 

 in the Rubi Germanici ot Weihe and Nees von Esenbeck. The number of 

 species in English Botany is, in Dr. Lindley's Synopsis of the British Flora, 

 21 ; which, he says, may be reduced to 5, or possibly to 2, exclusive of the her- 

 baceous species. In Don's Miller, 147 are given as the total number described by 

 botanists. We shall only notice such as are tolerably distinct, and which are in 

 cultivation in British gardens. The propagation of the shrubby, or raspberry-like, 

 species of .ffubus is effected by suckers or seeds ; that of the bramble division ot 

 the genus by pegging down the points of the shoots to the soil, when they will 

 root, and throw out other shoots, which may again be pegged down ; so that 

 plants are procured from brambles much in the same way as from strawberries. 



i. Leaves pinnate, of 3 7 Leaflets. 

 j* 1. R. SUBERE'CTUS Anders. The sub-erect Bramble. 



Dec. Prod., 2. p. 556. ; Don's Mill., 2. p. 534. ; Smith Eng. 



Identification. Anders, in Linn. Soc. 

 Flora, 2. p. 406. 



Synonyms. Lindley, in his Syn. qf the Brit. Flora, has given the following: R. nessensis Hall; 



. plicatus W. Sf N., not of Suppl. 

 W. $ N. ; R. corylifolius Wahlenb. 



R. plicatus W. Sf N., not of S 



. $ N. ; R. coryli 

 Engravings. Eng. Bot., t. 2572. 



to Eng. Hot. t. 2714., which is a smaller form of R. afflnis 

 and our Jig. 527. 



Spec. Char., $c. Stem erect. Leaf of never more than 5 leaflets, digitate, occa- 

 sionally pinnate, thin, shin- 

 ing, and plaited. Flowers in 

 simple corymbose racemes. 

 Prickles weak. (Lindl.) 

 A sub-erect shrub. Britain, 

 in moist woods and by the 

 sides of rivulets, chiefly 

 in the northern counties. 

 Stems 3 ft. to 4 ft. Flowers 

 white ; June to September. 

 Fruit pale purple ; ripe in 



AugUSt. 527. rt&bus suberSctus, 



x 4 



