KEY TO BRITISH RUBI. 201 



or even suborbicular. Pan. laxer and more leafy above, with a 

 good many stalked glands, and usually shorter axillary branches. 

 Whole plant paler in tint. Somerset. 



25. R. ABOENTATus P. J. Muell. R. Winteri Focke, Syn. R. G. 

 pp : 196, 197. St. high-arehing, subpruinose, dull red, hairy, angular. 

 Prickles mostly long, but unequal and scattered, from much dilated 

 and compressed base, nearly straight or declining, rarely falcate. 

 L. 5-nate-digitate or frequently pedate. Lts. subcoriaeeous, wavy at 

 the edge, irregularly mucronate-serrate, slightly hairy, but of a 



lustrous green above, greenish-white- felted with shining hairs beneath' (or 



pale green and nearly naked in shade) ; term, rather long-stalked, 

 broadly elliptic, ovate or subrotund, with long acuminate or cuspi- 

 date point, and rounded base. Pan. lax, leafy, with rather long 

 subpatent branches below, and the ultra-axillary part narrowing 

 considerably, with 1 -flowered or cymose-few-flowered branches ; 

 rachis and ped. thickly clothed with long villous hairs, and many slender 

 declining and slightly falcate pnckles as wiequal as those of the $t. Fl. 

 very showy, long-pedunded. Sep. ashy-felted and hairy, often leaf- 

 pointed. Pet. suborbicular, very shortly clawed, bright pink or 

 white. Stam. pink, long. Flowers late. 



A handsome, distinct-looking plant, as it occurs abundantly in 

 the Ross (Heref.) neighbourhood. Reported also from some other 

 counties. Woods and hedges. 



26. R. ramosus Blox. Journ. Bot. 1871, pp. 330-332; 1886, 

 p. 219. — St. erect-arcuate, sulcate, nearly or quite glabrous. 

 Prickles declining or subpatent, from a long compressed base, 

 usually very few. L. 5-nate-pedate and 3-nate. Lts. convex, coriaceous, 

 shining and subglabrous above, only moderately hairy beneath, but 



frequently with close whitish felt under the hairs (much like that on R. 

 rusticanus leaves), coarsely serrate and lobate - serrate ; term, obovate- 

 cuspidate, subcordate. Pan. rounded at the top, with long hnrer 

 ascending racemose-corymbose branches ; the somewhat flexuose rachis 

 and the ped. ashy-felted and thinly hairy ; the prickles unequal, 

 declining, or occasionally falcate, sometimes strong, but oftener 

 weak, and few in number above. Sep. ovate, with linear points. 

 Pet. broadly ovate, with very short claw, white or pinkish. 

 Filaments white. Styles pinkish. Fr. indifferent, and often 

 imperfectly produced. Wood-borders and rocky thickets. 



The foregoing is a description of the Dev. and Cornw. plant. 

 The usual ramosus of the Midlands differs from it considerably in 

 having st. and pan.-rachis much more hairy and prickly; 1. flat or 

 concave and thinner, not so shining above or white-felted beneath ; 

 term. It. much more rounded in outline, ovate or even broadly 

 elliptic, and gradually acuminate ; and pan.-rachis seldom con- 

 spicuously felted, and with its Its. much more attenuate to their 

 base; also in its longer pet. narrowiug gradually to their base. 

 But there are forms in different parts of Egg Buckland parish, 

 Dev., and at the Hartshill Quarries, Warw., which go far to bridge 

 over these differences, and to justify Mr. Briggs's opinion (v. Journ. 

 Bot. 1882, p. 102) that, " after all, the ramosus of Dev. and Cornw. 

 may be essentially one with that of Warw." I may add that Mr, 



