RUBUS ARCTICUS L. IN BRITAIN 



By R. M. Harley , 



In the past few months a number of herbarium sheets of reputedly British Ruhus 

 arcticus L. have come to Ught as a result of investigation prompted by the discovery of a 

 specimen in J. Cosmo Melvill's herbarium in the Butler Museum at Harrow School. 



There are two specimens in the British Museum (Natural History), one being from 

 Ben Lomond, v.c. 86 (ex herb. J. Forbes Young), and the other from Ben-y-Ghloe, v.c. 89 

 (ex herb. J. Sowerby). This last is mentioned by Smith (1806, 1585) : " Mr. Sowerby has 

 been favoured by Richard Cotton, Esq., with a. dry wild specimen from the high regions 

 of Ben-y-glo, Blair, in Scotland . . The specimen at Harrow dated 1837 is reputedly 

 from Ben Lawers. There are four other records, apparently unsubstantiated by any 

 dried material, mentioned by Druce (1920, 755). One of these is said to have been 

 gathered by " the late Rev. Dr. Walker, Professor of Natural History at Edinburgh . . . 

 in rocky mountainous parts of the isle of Mull," in 1782. There is also mentioned " a 

 specimen too imperfect to decide . . . from head of Glen Tilt " in 1841. Syme (1864, 

 260) states : " Ben More, in the Isle of Mull, and on Ben-y-Gloe, Perthshire; but recent 

 search has failed to discover it. Mr. Watson had a specimen sent him which was said to 

 have been gathered on a moor in Yorkshire, but he had reason to believe that the specimen 

 was of garden origin. It appeared in the garden of the late Mr, J. Irvine Boswell, King- 

 causie, near Aberdeen, on a bank of peat mould brought from the neighbourhood in 

 preparation for a rhododendron bed; but careful search failed to detect it growing on 

 the spot whence the mould was brought, and after a few years the plant died out in 

 the garden. It is not an unlikely plant to occur; the most probable place for it is the 

 district near the Sow of Atholl . . Also there are at Edinburgh two separate unlocalised 

 specimens, apparently British, but these I have not seen. 



Discounting probable horticultural introductions, there remain three or four records 

 which constitute a claim for the consideration of the species as British. It has been 

 mentioned by Polunin (1953, 34) as a plant likely to occur in this country. 



Rubus arcticus L. is an unarmed plant with a creeping rootstock from which arise 

 annual stems 4-8 in. high. The trifoliolate leaves consist of bluntly serrate leaflets. From 

 the few sheets examined, the serration appears to be considerably blunter in the so-called 

 British material than in the Scandinavian. There is usually a single terminal flower with 

 notched or entire petals of the same purple hue as the styles and stamens. The fruit is 

 dark purple, of a few large drupelets, with a strong flavour. 



The plant is found in parts of North Russia, Finland, Norway, Sweden and, rarely, 

 in what was formerly Estonia. In Finland it sets seed only north of the 62nd parallel, 

 though the plant, presumably distributed by birds, occurs south of this line. Characteristic- 

 ally it is a plant of damp pastures and damp, open woodlands at fairly low altitudes. 



The scattered reputed distribution in Britain suggests either that it was a relic from 

 times when conditions were more favourable when it had a wider distribution, or that it has 

 been introduced naturally or otherwise, each locality representing a single introduction. 



Two points seem to bear on this problem. Firstly, it has never been refound in 

 any of its localities in spite of evidence of searching, and secondly, Finnish records suggest 

 that it might prove sterile in Britain, which lies mainly south of the 59th parallel. It 

 would, however, be worth while cultivating the plant under natural conditions to see if 



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APP ^ ^ 1956 



