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R U B U S saxatilis.
Stone Bramble.
s °)
ICO SAND RIA Polygynia.
Gek. Char. Cal. 5-cleft. Petals 5. Berry superior,
composed o f several single-seeded grains.
Spec. Char. Leaflets three, slightly downy. Runners
creeping, herbaceous. Panicle of few flowers.
Syn. Rubus saxatilis. Linn. Sp. PI. 708. Sm. Fl.
Brit. 544.' Huds. 221. With. 470. Hull. eel. 2.
150. Fl. Dan. t. 134. Ger. cm. 1273.
Cha maerubus saxatilis. Raii Syn. 261.
A m o n g the most elegant of its genus is the Rulus saxatilis,
a northern species, very abundant in Lapland, less so in this
island, a native of lofty mountains, as well as of dry stony
woods about their neighbourhood. Mr. Borrer gathered our
specimen in the classic shades of Roslin, near
--------------------- “ that chapel proud,
Where Roslin’s chiefs uncoffined lie ;
* Each baron, for a sable shroud,
Sheathed in his iron panoply.”
The whole herb is of a slender delicate habit, of a light
green hue, slightly downy, not hoary. The root is fibrous
and perennial, throwing out very long trailing runners, either
naked or leafy, by which the plant spreads widely, but which
do not blossom till their extremities have taken root. Stems
solitary, erect, unbranched, a span high, slightly angular,
leafy, bearing a few weak spreading prickles, such as are also
observable on the footstalks, though both parts are sometimes
without them. The leaflets are three, rarely five, acute, doubly
and unequally crenate. Panicle terminal, of a few small
greenish-white flowers, with a pointed calyx and narrow upright
petals. Fruit of a very few large distinct crimson grains,
seldom more than three, often solitary, gratefully acid. The
old Swedish writers called this plant a Labrusca, or Wild Vine,
in allusion to its clustered berries and trailing habit.
M