Mr. C. C. Babington on the British Rubi. 167 
‘Novitiarum Flore Suecie mantissa altera et tertia’ of Fries 
(Upsala, 1839—1842); ‘Monographia Ruborum Suecie’ of 
Arrhenius (Upsala, 1840); and ‘Monographie des Rubus de 
Nancy’ of Godron (Nancy, 1843). It has also been my endea- 
vour to ascertain what forms are to be considered as species and 
what only as varieties. Had views concerning species been 
adopted similar to those elucidated in the invaluable ‘ Rubi Ger- 
manici,’ this: synopsis would have contained sixty-three species 
at the least, and with every wish to reduce them as far as nature 
will allow, they still amount to about half that number. Several 
‘of these are now described for the first time; of them full de- 
scriptions are given ; of the others the technical characters alone 
are introduced, accompanied by such notes and observations as 
appeared to be requisite. 
In so large an assemblage of species it becomes necessary to 
attempt a separation into groups, but in this, as in all rich and 
natural genera, it is found to be nearly impossible to do so. Many 
species are easily referable to sections, such as those which 
I have adopted ; but their artificial character is shown by other 
species which would belong to one section when young, and to 
another in their maturer state, or which possess characters so 
nearly intermediate, as to make it very difficult to decide in 
which section they should be placed. Still the divisions adopted 
in this essay have been found to be more constant and convenient 
than those derived from other peculiarities which are employed 
by some authors. 
It is not pretended that all the forms are correctly referred to 
their true places, but simply that the information within my 
reach and the best judgement which I can form have been used 
in this attempt at their arrangement. Additional study will 
doubtless show that many alterations are requisite ; will perhaps 
prove that some of those now considered as varieties are really 
specifically distinct, and demonstrate that several of my species 
may be combined with others. In those cases in which plants 
are described as new, every endeavour has been made to ascertain 
that they are not already published in the works of continental 
botanists ; but the want of authentic specimens has added greatly 
to the difficulty of determining many of those species which are 
not represented in the ‘ Rubi Germanici,’ and made it far from 
improbable that some of my names, and also those of Dr. Salter, 
will ultimately be superseded. It would appear that botanists 
generally are very little inclined to distribute authentic specimens 
of Rubi ; indeed, when we consider the variable character of many 
species, and the trouble attending the preservation of sufficiently 
characteristic specimens of all, we can hardly wonder at their 
rarity. In my own case, from residing in a district far from rich 
