32 
PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
into partnership with the Bramble and the bat, and they 
freighted a large ship with wool; she was wrecked, and the 
firm became bankrupt. Since that disaster the bat skulks 
about till midnight to avoid his creditors, the cormorant is 
for ever diving into the deep to discover its foundered vessel, 
while the Bramble seizes hold of every passing sheep to make 
up his loss by stealing the wool.” 
As a garden plant, the common Bramble had better be 
kept out of the garden, but 
there are double pink and white 
blossomed varieties, and others 
with variegated leaves, that are 
handsome plants on rough rock- 
work. The little Rubus sax- 
atilis is a small British Bramble 
that is pretty on rockwork, and 
among the foreign Brambles 
there are some that should on 
no account be omitted where 
ornamental shrubs are grown. 
Such are the R. biflorus from 
Nepaul, with its bright silvery 
bark and amber-coloured fruit; 
R. Nutkanus , with very hand¬ 
some foliage, and pure white rose-like flowers; R. Arcticus , an 
excellent rockwork plant from Northern Europe, with very 
pleasant fruit, but difficult to establish; R. Australis (from 
New Zealand), a most quaint plant, with leaves so depauperated 
that it is apparently leafless, and hardy in the South of 
England; and R. deliciosus , a very handsome plant from the 
Rocky Mountains. There are several others well worth 
growing, but I mention these few to show that the Bramble is 
not altogether such a villainous and useless weed as it is 
proverbially supposed to be. 
