mosquitoes, snakes, and even bears, all which have been encountered by berry-pickers upon this spot, as busy and as active as themselves, gathering an ample repast from Nature's bounteous lap. And oh, what beautiful wild flowers and shrubs grew in that neglected spot!" ** Leaflets 5; digitate, or cut into lobes, or ternate, rarely pinnate; stem mostly biennial, woody. Stem 2. (1.) R. suberéctus (Upright Bramble.) roundish, nearly erect, not rooting, nearly smooth; prickles few, small, chiefly confined to the angles, and not intermixed with bristles; leaflets quinate, or sometimes pinnate without close white down underneath. This plant, which is common in boggy woods and hedges, bears its white rose-like flowers from June to August, and produces its red fruits in autumn till the frosts destroy them. Few families of plants have been more variously arranged than the brambles, most botanists recording a large number of species, while others consider that these so-called species are but different forms of the same plants, varying only according to circumstances. Mr. Babington, in his "Manual of Botany," describes forty-three species of Rubus. Dr. Bell Salter considers that there are twenty-three species, and many botanists divide them into a larger number than either of these writers. In that valuable work, "The British Flora," by Sir William Jackson Hooker and Dr. Arnott, the following remark occurs on this subject, "We are almost quite convinced, practically, not only because the characters taken from the young shoots, and disappearing when they are older and begin to blossom, are not permanent, but because none of the reputed species of the shrubby Brambles are either anatomically or physiologically distinct, all passing into each other without any fixed assignable limit; and, theoretically, from a consideration of what is requisite to constitute a difference between the other European species of Rubus, that all of the present section are mere varieties, approaching on the one side to R. idæus, on the other to R. saxatilis, with both of which many fertile and permanent hybrids may have been formed and are still forming." These authors have, therefore, given what they consider the more prominent forms or races, numbering them as if only constituting a single species, and have indicated how these ought probably to be reduced to four types, an arrangement which is followed in this work. In examining the descriptions it will be necessary to remember that by stem is meant the barren rootshoot, and the prickles and leaves, when not otherwise described, must be understood as those upon that shoot. Stem 2. (2.) R. fruticosus (Common Bramble). arched, rooting, angular, furrowed, and nearly smooth; prickles slender, uniform, confined to the angles of the stem, and not intermingled with bristles; leaflets quinate, with close white down underneath. The beautiful snowy or delicate pink flowers of this bramble are to be found on most hedges from June till the end of summer, often contrasting with the dark crimson or black berry clustering on the same bough. When winter comes the long trailing shoots are yet clad with leaves, exhibiting the tinge of purple and deep brown, or of that red colour, which combined with the fruit to give the name of Rubus to the genus, with here and there a leaf green as the spring foliage, and whitened beneath with down. We have all in childhood eaten the ripened fruits, for what so "plentiful as blackberries." They are very wholesome, and often so juicy as to deserve the French provincial name applied to one of the species, Pinte de vin. The ancients considered both fruit and flowers efficacious against the bite of the serpent, but blackberries are now little valued save by country children, though they are occasionally made into puddings and tarts, or boiled with sugar, when they form a wholesome and pleasant preserve. Blackberries were also formerly considered as of valuable medicinal uses, especially in complaints of the throat and mouth, and bramble-roots boiled in wine were prescribed by the Roman physicians as one of the best astringents. The old English herbalists, who received many of their notions of the uses of plants from the old Roman writers, considered every part of the bramble as affording medicines, which, variously prepared, relieved various forms of human suffering. Turner, one of our oldest writers on plants, says, "The bramble bindeth, drieth, and dieth heyre," and a general belief prevailed that the bramble was so astringent, that even eating its young shoots as a salad would fasten teeth which were loose. Many a poet, like Cowper and Robert Nicholls, has referred to the pleasure of gather ing the blackberries in early days, and Elliott has a beautiful little poem addressed to the plant "Thy fruit full well the school-boy knows, Wild bramble of the brake, So put thou forth thy small white rose, I love it for his sake: Though woodbines flaunt, and roses blow Thou need'st not be ashamed to show Thy tender blossoms are. "How delicate thy gauzy frill, How rich thy branching stem, And, 'mid the general hush, Lone whispering to the bush." : Brambles in some cases prove injurious to hedges by climbing about more valuable plants, and hindering their growth; but, on the other hand, they protect more delicate shrubs and herbs, and shield them from rough winds. The shoots are very tough, and are used for binding down the cottage roof, and the sods of the lowly graves. Sometimes they are wound among straw fences in the farm-yard, or serve to bind the hayrick and bee-hives; and straw-mats, and various other articles of domestic use, are held together by their flexible twigs. Badgers are said to be very fond of blackberries, and to thrive well upon them, though the acorns which species, which are natives of Siberia, and much like this Alpine plant. 7. CÓMARUM (Marsh Cinquefoil). 1. C. palústre (Purple Marsh Cinquefoil).-Stems ascending; leaves pinnate; leaflets from 5 to 7, lanceolate, deeply serrated; flower-stalks branched. Plant perennial. This plant is so nearly allied to the Cinquefoils, that it is by some writers called Potentilla Cómarum, but it differs from that genus by having an enlarged spongy receptacle. It is not unfrequent on bogs and marshes, bearing large flowers in July, of a dingy purplish colour. It is in some parts of England called Cowberry. It is the Comaret of the French, and the Fünblatt of the Germans; while the Dutch call it Rood waterberie. Its name of Cowberry probably originated from a practice, common among the Irish, of rubbing the inside of milking-pails with this plant, in order that the milk may seem richer and thicker. Its roots are of sufficient astringency to be used in tanning, and they will dye wool of a yellow colour. 8. FRAGÁRIA (Strawberry). 1. F. vésca (Wood Strawberry).-Calyx of the fruit spreading, or bent backwards; hairs on the general flower-stalk widely spreading, on the partial flowerstalks erect, or close pressed; petals slightly notched. Plant perennial. The pretty white flowers of the strawberry plant stand up among the bright green hairy leaves from May to July. They are common in most |