RUBUS. 63 



with prickles mostly seated on the angles ; prickles usually numerous, 

 straight, often deflexed, with a dilated base coloured like the stem : 

 leaves quinate, pedate, on a slightly pilose stalk armed with a few 

 recurved prickles ; the partial stalks rather more pilose ; stipules 

 narrow, lanceolate, elongate, hairy ; terminal leaflet cordato-ovate or 

 often somewhat rhomboid with an acuminate point, 3^ inches long, 

 2^ths broad, rugose, irregularly serrate, soft and flexible, green, the 

 upper surface naked, the under a paler green and hairy on the pro- 

 minent nervures and veins ; lower leaflets sessile and decidedly over- 

 lappingthe intermediate pair. — The flowering stems are often blistered. 

 They are less angulated and are furnished with more numerous prickles. 

 They throw off numerous flowering branches, which are downy, 

 almost round, and have a few scattered prickles. Sometimes these 

 branches are not above 4 inches in length, and at other times they 

 exceed 2 feet. The pedicles of the flowers are downy, and minute 

 glandular setse are almost hidden in the down. All the leaves are 

 ternate, and the leaflets are often deeply cut or laciniated, one of the 

 lower pair being lobed. The flowers are white vrith rumpled petals. 

 The downy calyx is patent or reflexed, and its segments are ovato- 

 concave with a small point. With a glass only can the setae that 

 nestle in the hairiness be discovered. Anthers at first pale greenish- 

 yellow, becoming of a rich coffee-brown in maturity ; the styles 

 thickened upwards, yellowish-green, changing to pink and brown, and 

 becoming curved like a sickle previous to their fall. Fruit black. 



This is a common and a favourite species with me. There is no 

 figure of it in Weihe and Nees von Esenbeck's great work. It is the 

 first of our Brambles in flower, and ornaments our hedges with its 

 pure white and copious blossoms. Dr. Bell Salter says that these are 

 " rather small," which is the case on some plants, but on more indi- 

 viduals they seem to exceed the flowers of all other species in size. 

 It is not rare to find flowers with 4, or even with 3 petals ; yet 

 oftener they show a tendency to double. I have gathered specimens 

 with numerous petals near Penmanshiel ; and the bramble which 

 grows on a bank in front of the house at Foulden-deans, with double 

 flowers that rival those of the double-flowered Cherry, appears to 

 belong to this species. — The barren stems in autumn often take root 

 in the soil, and hence we find as often the shoot of the following 

 year with a rosette of leaves at its broken-off extremity. — There is 

 a variety with pink flowers. This always grows in shaded hedges 

 averse from the sun. 



The R. corylifolius of Mr. Babington in Ann. and Mag. N. Hist. 

 Ser. 2, ii. p. 34, is apparently different from our plant. 



170. R. MACROPHYLLUS. Borrcr in Hooker's Brit. Fl. 1830, i. 

 p. 247. — In moist shaded deans and occasionally in old hedges. N. 

 In the dean at Twizell-house : in the wood on Belford Crags. 



Barren stems very stout and much elongated, often branched, arching 

 nobly, obsoletely angular, dull green and only slightly browned on the 

 exposed side, smooth and glabrous or somewhat hairy, and armed with 

 numerous straight prickles which are of moderate size and dilated at 

 the base with a pungent point. Leaves 5-nate, large, thin and flexible, 

 dark green above and scarcely paler underneath, sparingly hairy, on a 



