70 RTJBXJS. 



179. R. c^sixjs, " caule procumbente tereti subpiloso pruinoso, 

 aculeis variis ineequalibus, foliis ternatis vel pinnato-quinatis foliolis 

 lateralibus sessilibus extrorsum ssepe lobatis, floribus paniculato-co- 

 rymbosis, fnictibus csesiis." W. and E. 102. tab. xhi. A. et B. 



In hedge-bottoms, on our river-sides in brakes, and on our sea- 

 banks, where often it creeps down to meet the kiss of the spring-tide 

 wave. — This can scarcely be mistaken for any other. The stems are 

 long, slender, round and trailing, of a dull colour covered more or 

 less with a glaucous bloom, and armed with numerous small unequal 

 decurved prickles, but without any hairs or glands. The leaves are 

 light green, temate, with lanceolate stipules sparingly glandulous on 

 the margin: leaflets subequal, the lower generally lobed, the terminal 

 broadly ovate rhomboidal, coarsely and miequally crenate, frequently 

 incised, green on both sides and hairy beneath on the nervures. The 

 flowering branchlets are sprinkled vdth stalked glands and straight 

 prickles. The broad segments of the calyx have a long point; and 

 with us the flowers are always white. 



The non-botanical world confound the preceding Brambles under 

 one common name — the JSrummfUjtVfj^buS]^ * ; and some of the 

 botanical world think that, in this instance, the other world is in the 

 right-|-. The species admitted into our catalogue appear to us to be 

 sufiiciently distinct. Four or five of them may be found in almost 

 every hedge or dean ; but the setigerous sorts prefer the edges of 

 natural woods, deserted quarries, and the bottom of old stone dikes. 

 It is easier, however, to detect their peculiar character when growing, 

 than to assign to specimens in the herbarium the name which the 

 learned have given them ; and error, we willingly acknowledge, is 

 here a venial sin. Humble-bees do not discriminate between 

 them, for they visit the flowers of every species indiscriminately ; but 

 schoolboys know that the berries of some kinds are larger and more 

 luscious than those of others. These berries we were wont to call, 

 in our school-days, JSIacfe^bolUJOUrS. In Berwickshire they are more 

 commonly called ^vummtl^ or ISvuinmttherrwsi or 33ummel=itttt£i, 

 — names which imply, I suppose, a suspicion that the fruit is liable 

 to give those who indulge in them the gripes. They are gathered in 

 some places to be made into jam; and sometimes to be baked in 

 dumplings, and they are very good for either purpose. See Hone's 

 Every Day Book, ii. p. 1 11 6 %. — When cows are hide-bound, a decoction 

 of the leaves and stalks cures the afi'ection. The dried shoots, being 

 split, are used in the making of bee-hives, for the purpose of binding 



* Thomas Aird says that, in Roxburghshire, the Bramble is called 

 Ladies'-Garters ! 



t Koch, Fl. Germ. 210 : Hooker and Arnott, Brit. Fl. 120. 



X In 1364 the Vicar of Norham receives tithe of Thistles and of " Bram- 

 ble berries of the larger size." Raine's N. Dm'ham, p. 278. — A very sin- 

 gular proof of the early use of these fruits has been lately published. A 

 mass of seeds was taken from the stomach of a body of an early Briton dis- 

 interred from a tumulus in Dorsetshire. The seeds were sown, vegetated, 

 and produced a Rasp ! Gard. Chronicle, Sept. 25, 1852. Notes and Que- 

 ries, vi. pp. 328 and 471. 



