240 IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN 



and more bushy brambles, the pink North American 

 B. spectaUlis would make a pretty bush if it had more 

 flowers ; but a far prettier little bush is the R. rosmfolius, 

 which, though it comes from the East Indies and 

 Mauritius, is perfectly hardy and has pretty double 

 rose-like flowers. It flowers, however, so late in the 

 autumn that in many years it does not flower at all, 

 and I never saw the fruit, which in its native countries 

 is said to be delicious. There are also a few low-growing 

 prostrate brambles well worthy of a place in the garden. 

 The Arctic bramble is remarkable for its fruit, which it 

 only produces very sparingly in England, and indeed 

 the plant is in most places difiicult to establish ; but in 

 Sweden and Norway the fruit is produced in great 

 abundance, and is largely used to make a very popular 

 preserve. Very different and very curious is the 

 Antarctic bramble {R. australis), which in New Zealand 

 assumes many difierent forms ; but in the form best 

 known in England the trifoliate leaves are reduced to 

 the three hard midribs, which, being thickly studded 

 with delicate white thorns, give the whole plant a 

 very pretty and uncommon effect. ^ To these two I 

 should add a creeping bramble from the Himalayas, 

 R. nutans, with handsome deep green foliage, and a 

 single white nodding flower on an upright stem, very 

 1 In the variety with perfect leaves the thorns are black. 



