204 KEY TO BRITISH RUBl. 



this white-petalled rusticanas ! " I should add, however, that it 

 seems to want the characteristic prickles of rusticanus, while the 

 stem is subglabrous and deeply furrowed like that of the true 



thyrsoideus. 



Group 4. Silvatici. — St. arcuate-prostrate, bearing equal or 

 nearly equal prickles of moderate size, and a good many patent 

 hairs (especially when young). Some stalked glands and a few 

 acicles not unfrequently present on pan. and (more rarely) on 

 st. L. apparently never 7-nate, nor sep. conspicuously white- 

 margined. Otherwise like Group 2 (Rhamnifolii), from which the 

 plants of this group are often with difficulty distinguished, especially 

 in the late summer and early autumn, when the greater hairiness 

 of the st. is hardly, if at all, apparent. In our plants the sep. are 

 reflexed in fr. (except in myricce, Salter i, and Sprengelii), and the 

 stam. are longer than the styles (except in myricce and Sprengelii, 

 and barely in leucostachys and gymnostachys). 



A. Like the Rhamnifolii in having comparatively few hairs on 

 st., and in being (typically) without stalked glands and acicles: 

 (31) dlvaticns ; (32) macrophyllus (usually) and vars., except macro- 

 phylloides ; (33) typical myricce and var. virescens (though in a Monm. 

 form both are very glandular) ; and (34) Salteri. 



B. St. usually conspicuously hairy, and sometimes having a 



few stalked glands. Pan. usually somewhat glandular and acicu- 



late: — (35) Golemanni (hairs very short); (36) micans ; (37) 



Qnestierii; (38) Sprengelii; (39) pyramidalis and var. ; (40) podo- 



phyllus (hairs few) ; (41) leucostachys and vars. ; and (42) gymno- 

 stachys. 



81. E. silvaticus W. & N. — St. arcuate-prostrate, ultimately 

 nearly glabrous, and with polished flat surfaces or shallow furrows 

 between the angles, roundish below. Prickles crowded in the lower 

 part of st,, and there small, straight, and subulate ; higher up still 

 short, but strong, declining from long compressed base. L. rather 

 large, all 5-nate-digitate. Lts.. dentate-serrate tmvards their tip f 

 coarsely simply serrate below, and wary at the edge, somewhat yellowish 

 green on both sides, thinly hairy above, more thickly and often 

 softly hairy beneath ; term, long-stalked, elliptic-acuminate, with 

 entire or occasionally subcordate base. Pan. remarkable for its 

 few small snbsetaceous declining prickles, and rachis thickly clothed with 



short woolly hairs, narrowly cylindrical, with many short patent or 

 subpatent branches above, and many 3-nate, trifid, and simple 1. 

 remarkably acuminate and coarsely cut ; the lower axillary branches 

 racemose-corymbose. Sep. clothed like the pan., rachis, and felted, 

 ovate-cuspidate, loosely reflexed in fr. Pet. large, broadly obovate, 

 emarginate, with short claw, pure white. Open wood-borders and 

 hedges. Widely distributed in the south. 



Often very like narrow-panicled specimens of R. Lindteianus ; 

 but distinguishable from it by its lower habit, its somewhat 

 yellowish green and usually broader foliage, its hairier stem (when 

 young), and smaller prickles, and above all by its much less strongly 

 armed panicle. 



