2631
R U B U S leucostachys.
Long-clustered Bramble.
ICOSANBRIA Folygynia.
Gen. Char. Cal. 5-cleft. Petals 5. Berry superior,
of several single-seeded grains, placed upon a
protuberant spongy receptacle.
Spec. Char. Stem arched, somewhat angular and
furrowed, hairy, with horizontal or deflexed
straight uniform prickles. Leaves digitate, of 5
or 3 stalked roundish or ovate, somewhat cordate
flattish leaflets. Panicle elongated, slender ; its
branches but little divided. Calyx reflexed.
Syn. Rubus leucostachys. Sm. Engl. FI. v. 2.403.
Lindl. Syn. Brit. 93.
_A_PPARENTLY a little known Bramble. Mr. Bicheno
has found it in Hampshire and Berkshire, and it is not rare
in hedges and thickets in Sussex, although of less general
occurrence than It. fruticosus and II. rhamnifolius.
With the former of these two species it is most liable to
be confounded, its panicle being of a similar form, but still
more lengthened and contracted, and both stem and leaves
of the same dark hues ; and the latter of an equally coriaceous
appearance. The stem however is less deeply furrowed
between the angles, and has the angles themselves
often obsolete; in the first year shaggy with spreading
hairs; even in the flowering state some such hairs often
remain, especially about the lower part of the stem: but
that “ the old stems are rarely without hairs” is incorrect,
the leaflets are less constantly quinate, broader, not contracted
towards the base, often almost round with a short
sudden point, especially the central one, at other times
more ovate, flat, or waved often deeply jagged, but slightly