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RUBUS GELERTII AND SOME OF ITS ENGLISH FORMS. 

 By Edward F. Linton, M.A. 



A NoEFOLK bramble, which varies to some extent in the district 

 where I first knew it, was sent to Dr. W. 0. Focke on different 

 occasions in two of its forms, and stated by him to be " R. Gelertii 

 Friderichsen," or "near Gelertii," or "between Gelertii and my 

 Banniiujii." The forms were (1) a more glabrous plant, in which 

 stronger prickles and acicles were developed; (2) a very hairy 

 plant, m which the acicles are few and weak, and almost reduced 

 to stiff glandular seta? ; and (3) a copse plant, with moderately 

 hairy stem, and many weak glandular sette. Probably No. 3 is a 

 woodland form of No. 2, and may be put on one side. 



A fresh gathering of (2), from two different localities, made this 

 last summer, went to Mr. 0. Gelert, who tells me that "these 

 forms have a great resemblance to R. Gelertii, and really only 

 diverge in the dense hairiness, weaker armature, and pink flowers." 

 Now the more glabrous plant (1) differs from (2) precisely in these 

 respects, and, what is more, agrees admirably in all points with the 

 excellent specimens of R. Gelertii which Mr. Friderichsen has sent 

 me. We have therefore the type in Britain, from Mousehold Heath 

 and from Beeston St. Andrew, both in the neighbourhood of Nor- 

 wich. I have it also, I think, from Polstead Marsh, Suffolk E., 

 collected by the Rev. J. D. Gray ; but the material is not sufficient 

 for certainty. Here is a description of the species, taken from 

 Mr.^ Friderichsen's own account of it, with aid from authentic 



R. Gelertii Friderichsen. Stems arcuate -procumbent, or climbing 

 amid bushes, hardly sulcate, subglabrous, with few set© and many 

 long straight prickles narrowed from a compressed dilated base ; 

 leaves rather thick, thinly hairy and glabrescent above, grey hairy 

 subtomentose beneath, with sharp irregular teeth, quinate- digitate; 

 leaflets all petioled, terminal ovate-elliptic, truncate or subcordate 

 at the base, acuminate ; panicle leafy beyond the middle, eventually 

 pyramidal, with a rounded top, its branches shortly matted with 

 hair, erect-patent, more or less glandular and setose; prickles 

 straight, deflexed a little or patent; sepals deltoid, acuminate, 

 reflexed, densely hoary tomentose, more or less setose; petals 

 ascending, white ; fruit glabrous. 



The second E. Norfolk plant (2), which occurs in hedges in 

 Sprowston and in Beeston St. Andrew, near Norwich, in some 

 quantity, and which I propose to call var. criniger, is distinguished 

 by its densely hairy stem, which is thinly glandular-setose ; rachis 

 and panicle-branches more densely hairy, with numerous slender 

 acicles and glandular bristles intermixed ; sepals like the type, but 

 with more loose silky pubescence ; petals pale pink or white, and 

 fruit hairy. I have gathered var. criniger also in W. Norfolk, on 

 Lexham Heath, where, however, it had white petals ; the colour of 

 the flowers is not a feature on which much stress can be laid in 

 brambles. 



