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



O' 



terminali obovato-cuspidato, paniculce tomentosse superne ultra- 

 axillaris ramis divaricatis subcorymbosis paucifloris, sepalis lanceo- 

 latis aciculatis setosis a fructu laxe reflexis. 

 R. scaber,i2w£. Germ. 80. t. 32. 



Prickles rather numerous on the barren stem, remarkably de- 

 clining but scarcely deflexed on our plant, short with a thick 

 base, yellow ; aciculi, setae, and hairs rather few, very short, with 

 thick rigid bases, which remaining on the old stems give the file- 

 like roughness to them for which this and the plants allied to 

 R. Radula are remarkable. Leaves ternate or u quinate-pedate," 

 opake and deep green with scattered hairs above, much paler but 

 green with more numerous hairs beneath ; lateral leaflets very 

 strongly lobed, each lobe oval and cuspidate, upon a short ascend- 

 ing stalk ; terminal leaflet obovate and cuspidate with a cordate, 

 base ; all irregularly and rather doubly apiculate-dentate ; general 

 and partial petioles and midribs (both primary and also those of 

 the lobes of the lateral leaflets) armed beneath with short thick 

 yellow hooked prickles, the petioles also having rather numerous 

 but extremely short aciculi setae and hairs, the midribs with 

 longer hairs but apparently without setae or aciculi ; stipules 

 linear setose and hairy. 



Flowering shoot surrounded by silvery scales, hairy, setose, 

 with prickles like those of the barren shoot but smaller ; upper 

 part of the peduncles more setose (setae purple), with a few 

 aciculi, more hairs, an under coating of ash-coloured wool, and 

 more slender and less deflexed prickles. Lowest and uppermost 

 leaves simple, broad, rather cordate, deeply lobed; the others 

 ternate with unequally oval or ovate lateral leaflets, the terminal 

 leaflet obovate-acuminate and considerably narrowed below ; all 

 apiculate dentate, pilose and green on both sides, paler beneath. 

 Panicle broad and relatively short, somewhat pyramidal ; lower 

 branches axillary, ascending, long, racemose-corymbose, few- 

 flowered ; upper ones ultra-axillary, divaricate, nearly corymbose, 

 only three-flowered on my specimens (as they are also represented 

 in the i Rubi Germ./ but not racemose as on that plate) . Sepals 

 lanceolate, woolly, aciculate, setose, greenish externally, loosely 

 reflexed from the fruit. Petals oblong. 



In Hartshill Wood, Warwickshire, in a dense thicket of bram- 

 bles and briars, Rev. A. Bloocam. August. 



Obs. It is very difficult to determine in which section of 

 the genus this plant should be placed; indeed, its structure 

 shows that the sections characterized from the barren stems are 

 not so absolutely distinct as has been supposed by some writers. 

 The armature of those stems would place it in the scabrous divi- 

 sion with R. Radula , to the varieties pygmceus and foliosus of 

 which the peculiar arms of its petioles show some similarity. In 



