Genus RUBUS L.

(Type R. ulmifolius Schott f.)

i. Stem herbaceous, rootstock creeping and suckering. Stipules broad, cauline.

Subgen. I. CYLACTIS Rafin.

(Type R. saxatilis Linn.)

Shoots annual. Leaves 3-nate. Flowers bisexual. Fruit red to deep purple, drupels hardly coherent, parting from the receptacle. Receptacle flat or convex.

1. R. saxatilis Linn. 1753, Sp. Plant. 494; Syme, 1864, Eng. Bot. ed. 3, t. 441.

4x. A small, low plant. Barren stem forming offsets at the tip then dying back nearly to the base, from which rise the flowering shoots in the following year. Flower shoot erect, with a few, weak, straight prickles and simple hairs; terminal leaflet ovate-rhomboid-cuneate, incise biserrate; lateral leaflets subsessile; petiole furrowed. Flowers very few; sepals lanceolate, acuminate, patent; petals 5, glabrous, narrow, erect, white; stamens long, the interior filaments incurved at the apex. Fruit red; drupels 6 in the terminal, 2 in the lateral flower; seed slightly wrinkled or pitted, or nearly smooth. Flowers May-June. Calcicole. Woods and wet rocks.

E., W., S., I. Absent from the midlands and south England, and from central and south Ireland. All Europe except the south-west. Asia to the Altai Mts, Armenia, N. Persia and Kashmir.

2. R.arcticus Linn. 1753, Sp. Plant. 494; Smith, 1806, Eng. Bot. ed. 1,1.1585.

2x. A very small plant without a barren stem and without prickles. Leaves simple, 3-lobed, or 3-nate and rarely 5-nate; terminal leaflet ovate, cuneate, unequally serrate; lateral leaflets sessile. Flowers 1-3, showy, 1-25- 2-5 cm., one terminal and others axillary, long-stalked; sepals and petals 5-7(-io), sepals greenish, glabrous; petals purple or rose, broad ovate, clawed, often toothed; filaments purple, erect, incurved at apex, equalling styles. Carpels pilose. Fruit red to deep purple, drupels numerous, seed faintly wrinkled. Grows usually among Poly trkhum on gravel or grit covered with bog-earth. Comes up as soon as the snow melts in May and rushes into flower when still only 3-5 cm. high.