oe 
| situations, but particularly in hedges and ne- 
glected commons, in almost all parts of Great 
Britain. The trailing stems usually attain a 
length of about ten feet ; they are angular and 
channelled; they have a thickly set and powerful 
armature of strong, crooked, back-turned prickles; 
and, in winter, some are green in colour, others 
reddish-purple, and others partly green and partly 
red. The leaves are palmate,—some with three 
lobes, and others with five; their upper surface 
is smooth and beautifully green, and their under 
surface has a whitish colour. A series of prickles 
extends along the midrib of each lobe, and down 
the footstalk of each leaf; and they continue on 
the plants during most of the winter, yet become 
brown and fading after Christmas. The flowers 
have a pink colour, and appear from June till 
September; and the fruit is successively green, 
_ red, and black, and attains the last or ripened 
_ colour in the latter part of autumn. 
The bramble, though abhorred by some farmers 
| asa most troublesome weed, and despised by mul- 
|| titudes of the general population as an ill-looking, 
scratching, vulgar-fruiting plant, serves benefi- 
cent purposes to the animated creation in waste 
parts of the country, and might readily be made 
subservient to some important economical pur- 
poses. When it abounds in any waste or ne- 
glected land which is proposed to be subjected to 
the plough, it ought to be grubbed or hoed up; 
and if thorough tillage speedily follow, it will 
soon be effectually destroyed. Bramble plants, 
mixed with hawthorns or almost any other kind 
of hedge-plants, thicken and strengthen their 
amassment in most descriptions of soil; and, 
when accompanied only with stakes or with what 
is usually termed a dead hedge, will speedily 
form a good fence in sandy soils of so poor a na- 
ture as to be totally unsuited to the growth of 
any of the ordinary hedge-plants. Yet two con- 
siderable objections occur,—first, that the leaves 
of the bramble are so large as to form a noxious 
shade over other plants,—and next that the 
shoots so speedily decay as to render a large pro- 
portion of an old bramble hedge dead wood. The 
long pliable branchy shoots may occasionally 
serve the purposes of a coarse cordage. The 
stems, leaves, and unripe fruit, when bruised to- 
gether, and applied externally, have been re- 
garded as a cure forringworm. The roots, when 
lifted early in spring, and boiled with honey, 
have been pronounced a remedy for dropsy; and 
when dried in the shade, cut into small frag- 
ments, and used for the preparation of a weak 
infusion, they have been regarded as almost a 
specific against obstinate coughs. The fruit or 
berries are great favourites with country chil- 
dren; they are used in Provence for giving a 
deep colour to particular wines; and, in many 
districts of Britain, they are in great request for 
puddings, tarts, preserves, and British wines. 
“There is little doubt,” says Billington, “but an 
excellent wine might be made from them alone, 
BRAMBLE. 
or perhaps mixed with currants, both as a nutri- 
tive and medicinal beverage for poor or even rich 
people, much more cheap, wholesome, and grate- 
ful than the often adulterated and expensive 
foreign wines that are recommended by the fa- 
culty in such cases.” An objection against the 
use of brambles in puddings or tarts, is that they 
highly discolour the lips and teeth; but the dis- 
coloration soon evanishes. 
Nine varieties of the common bramble are 
known to be permanent, and have been recog- 
nised in systematic botany. The double-flowered 
variety, 2. f. plenus, or R. f. lore roseo pleno, grows 
wild in the hedges of Britain, and has challenged 
nota littleadmiration for its floral beauty. Its dou- 
ble flowers are its only feature of difference from 
the normal common bramble ; they are produced, 
like those of the latter, at the ends of the shoots, 
but are paler, exceedingly double, and not suc- 
ceeded by any fruit; and as they usually flourish 
in great profusion, they make a remarkably beau- 
tiful and imposing show. A plant of this variety 
may be so pruned and confined in a garden as to 
have the appearance of a flowering shrub; and it 
will thrive and bloom under the drip of trees, or 
in situations where scarcely anything else of an 
ornamental kind will grow.—The white-fruited 
variety, ft. f. albus, or R. f. leucocarpus, was first 
observed in a hedge in the vicinity of Oxford, but 
may occasionally be observed wild in hedges in 
many other parts of Britain. It has a lighter 
shade of green on both its stems and its leaves 
than the normal common bramble ; yet it is prin- 
cipally distinguished by the whiteness of its 
fruit—The unarmed or thornless variety, R. f. | 
inermis, likewise grows wild in British hedges, 
and has often been regarded as a remarkable cu- 
riosity. Its shoots and branches are of a bluish 
colour, perfectly smooth, and more slender and 
trailing than those of the common variety; its | 
leaves have a bluish tint; and its flowers have 
the same colour and are produced in the same 
manner as those of the common variety, but are 
not quite so large. But its grand peculiarity, 
and one which sometimes excites not a little sur- 
prise, is its perfect freedom from prickles.—The 
variegated-leaved variety, 2. f. foliis variegairs, 
has striped leaves, is found only in gardens, is a 
weaker plant than the common variety, and af- 
fords some gratification to collectors of variegated 
shrubs.—The pompous variety, 2. f. pomponius, 
is found only in gardens, and has whitish pink 
flowers.—The Taurian and the Dalmatian varie- 
ties, 2. f. tauricus and &. f. dalmaticus, have re- 
spectively pinkish and rose-coloured flowers.—The 
glandulous and the one-coloured varieties, /. /. 
glandulosus and h. f. concolor, have pink flowers, 
and are natives of Germany. 
Three of the best known and most valued 
British species, additional to the common bram- 
ble, are Fubus tdeus, Rubus cesius, and Rubus 
chamemorus ; but these will be noticed in arti- 
cles on their English names, Raspperry, Drw- 
