R U B U S fruticofus.
Common Bramble or Black-berry-.
1 CO S A ND RIA Roly gym a,
Gen. Char. Cal. 5-cleft. Petals 5. Berry fuperior,
com poled of fevenil Angle-feedecl grains.
Spec. Char. Leaves generally of 5 leaflets, each on
a partial footftalk, and downy beneath. Thorns
all hooked. Stem angular. Calyx reflexed.
Syn. Rubus fruticofus. Linn. Sp. PI. 707. Sm. FI,
Brit. $43. Hudf. 220. With. 469. Hull. 111.
Relh. 195. Sibtb. 160. Abbot. 112.
R. major, frudlu nigro. Rah Syn. 467.
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-i- HE Common Bramble grows in almoft eyery hedge and
thicket, and the moft inexperienced botanift is fuppofed to
know it. Yet there is a fpecies almoft equally common,
which has been overlooked, and which Dr. Withering only
mentions as a variety. We hope one day to illuftrate it by
the name of R. coiylifolius. Schmidel reprefents it in his
leones, t. 2.
R- fruticofus has very long, trailing, or rather arching,
woody, tough Items, of a purplifh hue, with ftrongly marked
angles, and befet with hooked prickles, as are alfo the general
and partial leaf-ftalks, nerves of the leaf, and the flower-ftalks.
Leaflets for the moft part 5, all ftalked, fomewhat elliptical,
pointed, doubly ferrated j green and Ihining above; very
w'hite and downy beneath; rarely, on the fame root, fome
leaves are merely hairy and of a paler green on the under fide.
Stipulse briftle-lhaped. Panicles terminal, downy, of many
beautiful blulh-coloured or pink (feldom white) flowers. Calyx
downy, always reflexed both in flower and fruit. Berry
of very numerous grains, of a violet black, with a mawkifh
fweet tafte. The flowers begin to expand in July, and the
fruit ripens early in September. The feafon of 1799 indeed
was fo unfavourable, that fcarcely any Black-berries were to
be feen ripe in Qblober.