RXJBUS. 65 



stipules : Leaflets all stalked and geniculate, unequally crenate, the 

 1 ateral pairs obovate, cuspidate ; the terminal one roundish-obovate, 

 cuspidate, narrower and sinuate at the petiole. — Flowering branches 

 large and elongated, often more than a yard in length, more or less 

 divided, the branchlets erecto-patent, roundish, hairy, armed with 

 small prickles : Leaves 5-nate, 4-nate, but mostly 3-nate, thicker than 

 those of the barren stems but of the same figure : Panicle downy with 

 elongated straight prickles, and a very few scattered stalked glands, 

 which are easily overlooked : Segments of the calyx lanceolate, ulti- 

 mately reflexed : Flowers white, often not numerous, and many of 

 them abortive : Fruit large, becoming black in ripeness and very 

 juicy- 



I find the young barren stems to be decidedly angular, and more 

 hairy than the old stem when it has become as thick as a man's 

 thumb. Some of these stems have all the leaves quinate, in others 

 they are all ternate ; and the inferior surface is soft and almost pubes- 

 cent. When again the old stem throws off lateral branches, I find 

 many setae on some of these side branches, probably from their being 

 more or less buried in the herbage around them. 



I have been assured by three botanists separately that our plant is 

 the R. macrophyllus. It agrees well with Mr. Borrer's description 

 of this species, excepting that he says the stem is " furrowed," which 

 it is only after being dried. It does not, however, agree with Weihe 

 and Nees von Esenbeck's figure of R. macrophyllus, for not a leaflet 

 has a cuspidate apex in their plate, nor is this mentioned in the de- 

 scription. Our plant is more certainly their R. Schlechtendalii, 34. 

 tab. xi. ; and we have specimens in which the point of the sepals is 

 foliaceous and twisted in the bud. It is our largest Bramble ; and is 

 surely distinct from R. rhamnifolius, with which, " in technical cha- 

 racters," it almost agrees. 



171. R. RHAMNIFOLIUS, " caulc dccuTvo angulato sulcato aculeato 

 glabro, foliis quinatis suborbiculatis cuspidatis subtus cano-tomentosis, 

 panicula composita et decomposita conferta ramis divaricatis, calycibus 

 patentibus basi aculeatis." W. and E. 22. tab. vi. 



Hedges and brakes, common. N. Near Ford.— Barren stem arching, 

 dull green or purplish, angular and sulcate, smooth or only thinly 

 clothed with silky hairs ; prickles confined to the raised angles, equal 

 and stout, moderately numerous, yellowish with a dilated base, pointed 

 backwards or nearly straight. Leaves quinate, on a rather long 

 hairy striated stalk armed with numerous curved prickles which run 

 up on the midrib of the leaves : Stipules very narrow, ciliated : Leaf- 

 lets (fig. 3, a) all stalked, rigid, ovate, cuspidate, narrowed and sub- 

 cuneate at the base which is entire while the rest of the margins is 

 neatly but unequally serrate, the upper surface green and sprinkled 

 with hairs, the lower greyish, pubescent, with hairy nervures. — Fertile 

 stems angular, naked, more or less blistered, with curved prickles 

 on the angles : flowering branches angular, hairy and prickly ; the 

 leaves ternate with ovate cuspidate leaflets : panicle straight and leafy, 

 with short patent branchlets which are few-flowered, downy and prickly, 

 but not glandular : sepals with a short mucro, eglandulose, spreading. 



