144 KEY TO BRITISH RUBI. 



20. R. gratus Focke. — St. arcuate-prostrate, angular and 



sulcate, sparingly hairy, and soon becoming bald. Prickles rather 

 short, slightly declining from much-dilated and compressed base. 

 L. large, 5-nate-digitate. Lts. very coarsely and irregularly biserrate, 

 slightly hairy above, paler and rather thinly but (especially at first) 

 softly hairy beneath ; term, ovate, elliptic or occasionally subrotund, 

 acuminate, subcordate. Pan. broad, rather short and lax, with few- 

 flowered patent and patent-erect branches. Ft. and ft. (as well as I.) 



exceptionally large. Sep. ovate-triangular, acuminate, greenish, with 

 narrow white margin, reflexed in fL, patent after the pet. fall, loosely 

 embracing fr. Pet. pink. Stam. very long, all far exceeding styles. 



One of the three British Rubi (the others being rusticanus and 

 casius) found by Dr. Focke to have " quite regular pollen grains." 

 In spite of much superficial likeness to glabrous forms of R. villi' 

 caulis, amply distinct in 1., pan., and fl. Heaths and hedges. 



21. R. leucandrus Focke. — St. high arching, obtuse-angled, 

 usually with a good many hairs at first, but sometimes becoming 

 bald. Prickles declining or nearly straight, with rather long subulate 

 point from compressed and dilated base. L. 5-nate-digitate and 

 pedate. Lts. irregularly serrate with large and often compound but 

 very acute teeth, softly hairy beneath; term, elliptic-acuminate or 

 ovate-acute, round-based or subcordate, rarely cleft to the midrib 

 on one side. Pan. irregular, lax and unequal-sided ; usually elongate 

 and nearly leafless above, with the topmost fl. subsessile, rather weakly 

 armed ; lower branches erect -patent. FL showy. Sep. reflexed in 

 fl. and fr. Pet. large, obovate, pure white. Stam. white, far 

 exceeding greenish styles. 



Quite the typical plant does not seem to have been yet found 

 in Britain. It has a subpyramidal elongate pan., and pale green 

 and very acuminate Its., resembling those of R. gratus, though 

 narrower and more acutely toothed. A frequent Herefordshire 

 form growing in marshy thickets comes rather near it. The form 

 referred to by Dr. Focke in Journ. Bot. 1890, p. 129, and which is 

 abundant in the sandy districts near Bournemouth (both in Hants 

 and Dors.), has a shorter, broader pan., and Its. of a darker green 

 (pale beneath), rather broadly ovate or even suborbicular, with 

 acute or cuspidate-acuminate point, and closer, finer teeth. This, 

 in colouring, and to some extent in habit, and in the texture and 

 general look of the foliage, approaches R. aflinis, though quite 

 different in its hairy stem, its much shorter prickles, and its more 

 nearly equal Its. 



22. R ? hirtifolius Muell. & Wirtg. — St. arcuate-prostrate, 

 angular, hairy. Prickles rather unequal, of medium size, declining 

 from a dilated compressed base. L. mostly 5-nate-pedate, exceptionally 

 broad, from the great size of the interm. Its. Lts. rather irregularly 

 dentate-serrate, hairy on both sides, very soft beneath; term, 

 broadly ovate, obovate or subrotund, cuspidate-acuminate, cordate. 



Pan. lax, eglandular, with broad rounded subcorymbose top, and about 

 2-6 long distant ascending axillary branches, also having their flowers 

 gathered in a rounded subcorymbose or cymose top ; rachis hairy, with 



scattered unequal declining prickles. Sep. greenish -tomentose, 



