over our field borders or heaths, in thickets, or on hedgebanks. The fruits are few and large, less compact but more juicy than the blackberry, and half enclosed in the calyx. When quite ripe they are black, but are often so thickly covered with a pale blue powdery bloom as to have a greyish tint. They grow either singly or two or three together, and not in dense clusters like the blackberry. Clare, a poet, whose descriptions of nature are unsurpassed in truthfulness, describes the "sun-burnt cow-boys" as searching for them where they are often to be found-beside the brook :

"The pithy bunch of unripe nuts to seek,

And crabs sun-redden'd with a tempting cheek,
From pasture hedges, daily puts to rack

His tatter'd clothes, that scarcely screen the back,-
Daub'd all about as if besmear'd with blood,
Stain'd with the berries of the brambly wood,
That stud the straggling briars as black as jet,
Which when his cattle lair he runs to get;
Or smaller kinds, as if begloss'd with dew,
Shining, dim powder'd, with a downy blue,
That on weak tendrils lowly creeping grow,
Where, choked in flags and sedges, wandering slow
The brook purls simmering its declining tide,
Down the crook'd boundings of the pasture side;
There they to hunt the luscious fruits delight,
And dabbling keep within their charge's sight,
Oft catching prickly struttles on their rout,
And miller-thumbs, and gudgeons, driving out,
Hid near the arched brig, under many a stone

That from its wall rude passing clowns have thrown."

Even in Australia, where fruits are so few and so tasteless, the bramble fruit has a somewhat pleasant flavour, though rather acid, and more resembling that of the cranberry. It is prized by the colonists, and used for

tarts.

The Tasmanian Bramble is the Rubus Gunianus of the botanist. It is a small species, having yellow flowers, and is found commonly at the summits of all the mountains as well as in many level parts of that country. "Its mode of growth," says Backhouse, "is something like that of our dewberry, and it is a creeping plant, seldom exceeding a few inches in height, but covering patches of ground several feet in extent, and flourishing on a soil chiefly composed of decayed wood. The fruit is of a fine colour, and formed like that of the Arctic bramble. It is concealed by the leaves, which densely cover the ground, and is also partially hid under the light soil."

*** Leaflets ternate, stem herbaceous, or nearly so.

3. R. saxatilis (Stone Bramble). -Stems slender, rooting, nearly without prickles or bristles; flower-shoots erect, with a panicle of few flowers; leaflets ternate, slightly downy. This bramble is found chiefly in the north of this kingdom, where it grows on stony mountainous places. Its leaflets are egg-shaped, and are sometimes only two in number. The flowers are minute, appearing from June to August, and are of a greenish yellow colour. The fruits are large, bright red, and few in number.

4. R. árcticus (Arctic Bramble, or Strawberry-leaved Bramble).-Stems erect, not rooting, without prickles or bristles; petals roundish, notched; flower terminal and mostly solitary; leaflets ternate, slightly downy, and bluntly serrated. This bramble is well known in the north of Europe, and its fruit is highly prized. It is

recorded as growing in the Isle of Mull, and on Ben Ghlo, in Athole. Sir William Hooker and Dr. Arnott remark of this species:-" The only place in Scotland which agrees with the foreign localities of this plant, is in the low moors near the station of Menziesia cærulea, where stood the old Caledonian forest; there only need it be looked for, the two spots above given we have searched in vain for it."

The Arctic Bramble is found on mountainous turfy bogs; its stems are from four to six inches in height, and its flowers large and rose-coloured, expanding in June. The flavour of the fruit is delicious, partaking both of that of the raspberry and strawberry. In Sweden a very rich wine is made of these berries. "The nobility in Norlandia," says Linnæus, "cause to be made of the berries syrup, jelly, and bramble wine, which are partly consumed by themselves, and partly sent to their friends at Stockholm, as the most choice and delicious dainties;" and, indeed, among all the wild berries of Sweden, these seem to hold the first place. Linnæus, in his "Flora Lapponica," records his obligations to this fruit. "I should be ungrateful," he says, "to this excellent plant, which has so often refreshed me with the nectareous juice of its berries when almost overcome with hunger and fatigue, were I not to give a full description of it." All travellers in the north of Europe speak highly of the worth of this fruit, and of the somewhat less delicious Cloudberry. The berries of the Arctic Bramble are not only highly flavoured, but so fragrant, that if only a few be gathered and placed in a saucer and brought into the house, they perfume the

whole room. They are of a dark red colour, and about the size of the common raspberry, but the plant itself is so diminutive that an entire shrub, with all its branches, leaves, and fruit, was placed by Dr. E. D. Clarke within a phial, holding about six ounces of alcohol, in which state it was preserved with even its colours unaltered, and might be so, this traveller remarks, for any length of time, provided it be kept from the access of external air. This author adds, that it is found only in the southern provinces of Sweden. A few plants occur in Dalecarlia, and it grows occasionally in Finland.

**** Leaves simple.

5. R. Chamæmórus (Mountain Raspberry, or Cloudberry).—Stem herbaceous, without prickles, 1-flowered; leaves lobed and plaited. This is a very distinctly marked species of Bramble, growing in the mountainous parts of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. It has in June beautiful large white flowers, often delicately tinted with rose colour, having their stamens and pistils on separate plants. The stems are about half-a-foot high, creeping like the stems of the raspberry and Arctic species.

The delicious fruits of this bramble are prized in all countries in which they grow, and, though rare in this kingdom, are plentiful in the north of Europe. The bogs near the water in some parts of Lapland are covered with Cloudberries, and Dr. Clarke relates that from a spot thus situated, he and his Swedish interpreter gathered, in little more than an hour and a-half,

a large basketfull of the fruit. "In its natural state,' says this writer, "no fruit looks more beautiful. We endeavoured to procure a small cask of it to send to England, but wanting a sufficient quantity of sugar, the acetous fermentation took place, and the whole mass was spoiled. Wherever we walked near the river we found whole acres covered with its blushing fruits, hanging so thick that we could not help treading on them. As they ripen they lose their crimson hue, and turn yellow, when the flavour of the fruit is not so refreshing to the palate. They are always most delicious when they have been cooked. In their unripe state they resemble in taste those diminutive stunted apples gathered from Codlin-trees, which are called 'crumplings.' The larger berries are as big as the top of a man's thumb." Our traveller, who, while staying at the house of a Lapland minister, was seized with a fever, remarks, that in the evening two of the children came into the room, bringing with them two or three gallons of Cloudberries, which grew so abundantly near the house that it would have been easy to gather bushels of the fruit. "Little," says this traveller, "did the author dream of the blessed effects which he was to experience by tasting of the offering brought by these little children, who, proud of having their gifts accepted, would gladly run and gather daily a fresh supply, which was as often blended with cream and sugar by the hands of their mother, until at last he perceived that his fever rapidly abated, and his spirits and appetite were restored; and when sinking under a disorder so obstinate that it seemed to be incurable, the blessings of health were restored to him when