Prunus.] 



XXIV. BOSACEAE. 



125 



* P. Persica, Stokes, Bot. Mat. Med. iii. 100. A shrub or small tree. Leaves 

 convolute in bud, narrow-lanceolate, serrate, acute. Flowers sessile or shortly 

 pedicelled, solitary, appearing before the leaves. Calyx-tube coloured ; lobes downy. 

 Fruit a drupe, with a soft velvety membranous epicarp and stony furrowed and 

 rugose endocarp. 



NOETH Island : naturalised in many localities in the northern districts ; formerly abundant. 

 Peach. Aug., Sept. Temperate Asia. 



1. RUBUS, Linn. 

 Calyx 5-lobed, ebracteolate ; lobes imbricate in bud, persistent. Petals 5, 

 erect or spreading. Stamens many. Disk lining the calyx-tube. Carpels 

 many, with 2 pendulous ovules in each ; style terminal or subterminal. Fruit 

 of many minute 1-seeded drupes, crowded on a dry conical receptacle. Shrubs, 

 rarely herbs, with prickly scrambling stems. Leaves alternate, simple or pin- 

 nately or palmately divided into lobes or leaflets. Stipules adnate to the 

 petiole. Flowers in terminal or axillary panicles, rarely solitary, unisexual 

 or hermaphrodite. 



Species, about 150, but, according to some authors, over 600 ; distributed through most parts 

 of the globe. Several species have edible fruits. 



A. Flowers unisexual. Stem unarmed oe with few peickles. 

 t Leaves 3-S-foliolate. 

 A lofty climber. Leaflets cordate or truncate at base. Flowers white. 

 Fruit red 



A bush or climber. Leaflets rounded at base. Flowers yellowish. Fruit red 



A bush or low climber. Leaflets oval or orbicular-ovate. Fruit amber- 

 coloured 



1. a. australis. 



2. R. cissoides. 



3. E. schmidelioides. 



ft Leaves 1-foliolate. 

 Prostrate. Leaves dentate. Fruit deep-red, large 



4. B. parvits. 



B. Flowees hebmapheodite. Stem with steaight or laege hooked peiokles. 

 a,. Leaves pinnately 3-5-foliolate. Prickles straight. 



Leaflets small, white beneath. Fruit red . . . . . . . . * R. Idaeiis. 



b. Leaves digitately 3-5-foliolate. Prickles hooked. 



Leaflets flat or convex, green or white beneath .. .. .. .. * B. fruticosus. 



Leaflets convex, white beneath. Fruit reddish . . . . . . . . * B. rusticamos. 



Leaflets flat, white beneath, ovate or obovate . . . . . . . . * B. leucostachys. 



Leaflets pale-green, roundly obovate or cuspidate. Sepals with long leafy 



points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ' iJ. macrophyllus. 



Leaflets deeply laciniate . . . . . . . . . . . . ' B. laciniatus. 



1. R. australis, G. Forst., Prod. n. 224. Stems unarmed or with a few 

 scattered prickles, climbing to the tops of the loftiest trees. Branches slender, 

 drooping. Petioles and midribs armed with recurved prickles. Leaves pal- 

 mately or rarely pinnately 3— 5-foliolate ; leaflets usually on long petioles, 

 coriaceous, linear, oblong, oblong-lanceolate or broadly ovate-lanceolate, acute 

 or acuminate, sharply serrate, truncate or cordate at base. Panicles unisexual, 

 axillary or terminal, 4in.— 24!iu. long, and leafy at the base. Pedicels short, 

 glandular, pubescent or puberulous, with a linear bracteole at the base of each. 



