upper parts of the plant 5 usually lost the second year, when
the stem often assumes a brighter purple. Prickles very
small and slender, yet not innocuous, seated on the angles
of the stem, horizontal or somewhat deflexed, with a thick
dilated base. Leaves on long stalks, with a few prickles
rather more curved than those on the stem ; many of them
ternate, even on the barren stem: leaflets often six inches
long, soft and pliant, flat or a little decurved, grass green
above, with a few hairs; more hairy and paler, sometimes,
but not generally, hoary beneath; their figure mostly narrowly
elliptical or ovate, often with a long point, the middle
one usually cordate at the base; their serratures somewhat
unequal, rather coarse, mostly blunt with a sudden acute
point: leaves of the flowering shoots ternate, often very
large, sometimes deeply jagged; the uppermost frequently
simple. Panicle varying much according to the vigour of the
shoot; sometimes nearly simple with ascending branches,
sometimes large, more spreading, and repeatedly divided •
its branches with a few small straight prickles and pale inconspicuous
glands sprinkled among the downy pubescence.
Calyx segments bent back, at least when in fruit, acute*
woolly, with glands like those of the panicle, and occasionally
a very few minute prickles; setae we have not seen.
Petals greenish white, sometimes faintly tinged with pink.
Berries round, black and shining, of rather loosely set
grains, acid until quite ripe.
We have doubted whether this plant be R . macrophyllus
or R . Schlechtendalii of Rubi Germanici, of neither of which
have we seen an authentic specimen. It agrees better in
some points with the description and figure of the one in
other points with those of the other. Perhaps a knowledge
of the two plants might remove the suspicion we cannot
but entertain at present, that they are but varieties of one
species.—W. B.