36 Mr. C. C. Babington on the British Rubi. 



r i 



Doubtless during the present summer Mr. Leighton will ex- 

 amine his plants with reference to the form of the primordial 

 fruit, the torus, the styles, and the direction of the edges of the 

 leaves, and determine by means of these (according to my 

 views) highly important characters the rank of the four forms 

 which he has described. A careful examination of the dried spe- 

 cimens of them to which I have access has not enabled me to 

 form a confident opinion upon them ; but it is my firm belief that 

 R. incurvatas is quite distinct from R. corylifolius ; neither do I 

 suppose that it is synonymous with either of Mr. Leighton's va- 

 rieties of that plant, although some of the individuals included 

 by him under more than one of them will perhaps be found to 

 belong to it. 



8*. R. incurvatus (n. sp.) ; caule arcuato anguloso glabriusculo pi- 

 losove, aculeis validis rectiusculis horizontalibus declinatisve,/o/*7# 

 quinatis coriaceis subtus tomentosis viridi-albis marginem versus 

 incurvatis undulatisque, foliolo terminali cordato-ovato acuminata, 

 infimis breve petiolatis intermediis dissitis vel incumbentibus, pa- 

 niculse angustse ramis brevibus corymbosis, sepalis ovatis attenuatis 

 a fructu hemispherico reflexis, stylis dilute carneis, toro ovato 

 sessili. 



Stem arching, angular, slightly furrowed, purple, nearly gla- 

 brous or with scattered patent hairs. Prickles purple with a 

 yellow tip, hairy, much-enlarged and compressed at the base. 

 Leaves shining above, soft and greenish white beneath ; their 

 doubly crenate-dentate -apiculate margins turned upwards in a 

 remarkable manner and wavy ; midrib and petioles with strong 

 hooked prickles with yellow tips ; lower pair of leaflets oblong, 

 shortly stalked, either overlapping or distinct from the obovate 

 intermediate pair ; terminal leaflet cordate-ovate, acuminate, on 

 rather a long stalk ; all acute. Petioles flat above or very slightly 

 furrowed. Stipules linear. 



Flowering shoot rather long, surrounded at its base by short 

 scales white with silky pubescence, purple, hairy with patent 

 hairs. Prickles strong, deflexed, purple with yellow tips, hairy. 

 Leaves ternate, pilose above, pale green and hairy beneath ; leaf- 

 lets nearly equal, obovate or oblong, lateral ones lobed on the 

 lower edge; petioles and midribs with small hooked prickles. 

 Stipules linear or linear-lanceolate. Panicle narrow, compound, 

 tomentose and pilose, with yellow setae shorter than the hairs ; 

 prickles long, declining or slightly deflexed, rather slender; 

 branches short, corymbose, the two or three lowest axillary, di- 

 stant, the upper ones approximate, all patent ; the upper half or 

 two-thirds of the panicle ultra-axillary ; occasionally the lowest 

 branch is prolonged and forms a subsidiary panicle as in R. cory- 



