124 Mr. C. C. Babington on some species of Rubi. 



rower, with long points, downy and whitish green on both sides. 

 Petals spathulate, acute, white. Stamens and styles white. 



It is worthy of remark, that in the Cambridge Botanic Garden 

 the strong " canes " of R. Leesii nearly all produced a small pa- 

 nicle of flowers at their extremity in the month of October 1851. 

 In one single instance a cane of R. Idceus did the same. Pre- 

 viously to that month, neither Mr. Stratton, the Curator of the 

 garden, nor I, had ever noticed such an occurrence in the latter, 

 and had not had the opportunity of doing so in the former. 

 This is a curious illustration of the tendency of all Rubi to at- 

 tempt to increase by some action at the end of the shoot of the 

 year. In all the arching and prostrate species it is effected by 

 the end of the shoot penetrating the surface of the ground and 

 taking root; in these plants, the end of whose shoots never 

 reaches the ground, the same is attempted to be effected by 

 flowers. The mode in which the procumbent plants succeed in 

 penetrating the earth may be worthy of notice, for the prostrate 

 position of their shoots seems to present a difficulty. Although 

 the shoot is really prostrate until the autumn, at that time its 

 extremity forms a small arch and thus presents its point perpen- 

 dicularly to the ground, which it easily penetrates. 



The discovery of R. Leesii is due to Mr. Edwin Lees, whose 

 practised eye at once saw its probable distinctness from R. Idaus. 

 He noticed it in the woods at Ilford Bridges near Linton, in 

 North Devon, in September 1843, but could find no flowers re- 

 maining at that late period of the year. In June 1849 the Rev. 

 W. H. Coleman pointed it out to me growing upon a dry shingly 

 bank at Bonniton near Dunster, Somerset, and flowering plen- 

 tifully. These stations, separated from each other by the high 

 ridge of Exmoor, are distant about fourteen miles in a direct line. 



The specific character of R. Idmis will now stand as follows : 



R. caule suberecto tereti pruinoso, aculeis setaceis rectis, foliis qui- 

 nato-pirmatis ternatisve, foliolo terminali longe pedicellato latera- 

 libus dissitis, aculeis ramorumjloriferorum et pedunculorum multis 

 defiexis basi dilatato-compressis, floribus axillaribus terminalibus- 

 que corymbosis. 



2. R. fissus, Lindl. 



R. fissus, Lindl. Syn. ed. 2. 92 ; Leight. Fl. Shrop. 225 ; Bab. Man. 



ed. 3. 93. 

 R. fastigiatus, Lindl. Syn. ed. 1. 91 ? not of W. fy N. nor Bab. 



A full description of this plant will be found in Leighton's 

 ' Flora of Shropshire/ In the ' Phytologist ' (iii. 72) he pointed 

 out the character derived from the prickles on the barren stem 

 by which it is well marked. 





