134 
BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 
during the month of May in the woods. The wood is very fine-grained and ornamental as timber, and tables 
made of it are often found in farm-houses in the country. 
2.— THE BIRD CHERRY. (Cerasus Padus, Dec.) 
Synonyme. —Prunus Padus, Lin. 
Engravings. — Eng. Bot., t. 1383; 2nd ed., t. 688; and our Jig. 
3, in PL 31. 
Specific Character. —Flowers in long racemes. Leaves ovate- 
lanceolate, acuminate, thin ; smooth beneath, with spreading ser- 
ratuies. Fruit small, bitter. 
Description, &c.— The English Bird Cherry, though less ornamental than the American, is still a 
beautiful little tree, and it is very common in woods and hedges in the north of England, where it flowers 
in the month of May. The fruit is very small, and of so dark a purple as to be almost black. It ripens in 
the month of July, and though it is excessively bitter, it is greedily eaten by the birds. Hence the popular 
name of Bird Cherry. 
III.—THE STRAWBERRY TRIBE. 
The fruit of the plants included in this tribe consists of small nuts or stones, which are sometimes included in 
a juicy drupe, as in the Raspberry ; and sometimes naked, as in the Strawberry ; or invested in a dry permanent 
calyx, as in the Potentilla. The carpels are always seated on a dilated receptacle, which is sometimes succulent, 
as in the Strawberry, and sometimes dry. The calyx is either four or five-cleft, sometimes bearing small bracts 
or bracteolm on its tube, equal in number to the segments, and alternate with them. The flowers have five 
petals, and the seed is solitary. Most of the plants belonging to this tribe are herbaceous, except the Brambles, 
which are suffruticose. 
GENUS IY. 
THE BRAMBLE. (Rubus, Lin.) 
Lin.Syst. ICOSANDRIA POLYGYNIA. 
Generic Character. —Calyx somewhat campanulate, five-lobed, 
without external braeteolse. Petals five. Stamens indefinite. Fruit 
consisting of numerous succulent drupeoloe, placed upon an elevated 
dry receptacle. Seed inverted. Shrubs or herbaceous plants. Stems 
usually long and procumbent, sterile the fust year, bearing flowers and 
fruit the second, and then perishing. Leaves either simple, ternate, 
quinate, pedate, or pinnate, always more or less divided at the margin. 
( Lindley .) 
Description, &c. —There is perhaps no genus of plants that has occasioned botanists more trouble than 
this. As, however, Dr. Lindley has bestowed considerable attention on the genus, I shall follow him in most 
cases, without troubling my readers with the details of the reasons which have led him to the conclusions he has 
arrived at. The word Rubus is supposed to be derived from the Latin word ruber , which signifies red, 
in allusion, I suppose, to the colour of the juice of the fruit. The genus is placed in the Linnaean class 
Icosandria, from its twenty stamens ; and in the order Polygynia, from its numerous carpels. 
§ 1.— Shrubby. 
1.—THE RASPBERRY. (Rubus idasus, Lin.) 
Engravings. —Eng. Bot., t. 2442 ; 2nd ed., t. 719. 
Specific Character. —Stem erect. Leaves pinnate. {Lindley.) 
Description, &c. —The Wild Raspberry is very common in the north of England and in Scotland, where it 
grows in great abundance in thickets. The stems are generally about four feet high, and very slender, bending 
