CXVIII.— THE WILD RASPBERRY. 
Rubus id a us Linne. 
T he third Sub-Family of the Rosacete is the Rosoide<e^ in which the gynaeceum 
consists of any number of distinct carpels, which are indehiscent and contain 
when ripe only one seed. They are generally, but not always, dry achenes. The 
British members of the group fall into three Tribes, the Potentillea^ Sanguisorhcie, 
and Rosea, according to Dr. W. O. Focke’s classification in Engler and Prantl’s 
“ Natilrliche Pflanzenfamilien.” In the Potentillea there are generally a considerable 
number both of stamens and of carpels, the latter being collected together in a 
head or etario, as it is called (from the Greek eraipos, hetairos, a companion), 
and arranged spirally round the apex of the floral axis, which does not itself, as a 
rule, enter into the structure of the fruit. The Tribe is subdivided into three 
Sub-Tribes, the Rubina, including the large genus Rubus ; the PotentiUina, including 
Fragaria, Potentilla, and some other closely-related genera ; and the Dryadina, 
including Geum and Dryas. The Rubina are characterised by the absence of the 
epicalyx ; by the carpels becoming drupels or miniature drupes, each with its 
epicarp or skin, mesocarp or pulp, and endocarp or stone, like a tiny plum or cherry ; 
and by having two pendulous ovules, only one of which becomes a seed. 
The genus Rubus is widely distributed, especially in the Northern Hemisphere, 
its species being often capable of holding their own against, or dominating, other 
vegetation. Opinions differ very widely as to the limits of species within this 
genus ; but every botanist admits that some of them are extremely variable. 
Thus the British species are counted as four in Hooker’s “ Student’s Flora,” as 
forty-eight in Babington’s “ Manual,” and as a hundred and three in the Rev. 
W. Moyle Rogers’s “ Handbook of British Rubi.” As, however, all these 
authorities agree in treating the Wild Raspberry (Rubus idaus Linne), the Stone 
Bramble (R. saxatilis Linne), and the Cloudberry (R. Chamamorus Linne) each as 
a single species, the great discrepancy in their estimated totals depends almost 
entirely upon their views as to the Brambles, which Linn6 lumped together under 
the name of Rubus fruticosus. So difficult is the problem as to these, which some 
evolutionary botanists have termed “ species in the making,” that it is recognised 
as a distinct subject of critical study under the name of Batology (from the Greek 
fidrof;, batos, a bramble). 
All the species of the genus Rubus, of which there may be two hundred in all, 
agree in being perennial, at least so far as their rhizomes are concerned, though the 
aerial shoots are seldom more than biennial. These shoots are generally woody, 
though little so in the Stone Bramble and Cloudberry, in which they are annual. 
The leaves are scattered, petiolate, stipulate, and mostly compound, being composed 
of from three to seven leaflets. The stipules are generally adnate to the petiole, and 
the leaflets palmately arranged ; but the Raspberries are distinguished partly by 
having the latter pinnate. The flowers are generally produced in a racemose 
