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204 EUBUS EEYTHRINUS.
It may be well to quote Eotb's owu description of his plant. It
is as follows :
" P. foliis iuferioribus longissimis, lanceolatis, acuminatis, niem-
branaceis ; superioribus ovali-lanceolatis, coriaceis ; omnibus petiolatis."—
Tent. Flo. Geim. torn. i. p. 72.
Leaving fruiting characters out of consideration, it would not be
easy to give briefly a better description of our sterile form than this.
My contention therefore is :—First, that the demand for fruit,
wherewith to prove that any plant is /-•. jinitans Roth, must be
withdrawn, or the evidence whereon tbe demand is based be
divulged ; and secondly, that the name P. Jiuitans Eoth, must be
withheld from the freely-fruiting continental plant, until it is shown
to produce the characteristic submerged leaves described by Eoth,
and which have been entirely wanting on the few specimens of
fruiting " 1'. j^iiiUtns'' seen by myself, and wanting, so far as I can
ascertain, on all specimens of fruiting "jhutans" that have been
seen in this country.
I am not prepared to deny that these two forms may possibly be
varieties of the same species, for I know too little of the fruiting
plant ; but if they are, it has yet to be shown conclusively, and
meanwhile I most confidently hold the contrary opinion myself. I
do not doubt that our /'. jiititans is a hybrid F. nutans x lucens,
and at the same time should not be at all surprised were a ripe nut
occasionally found. Such is no evidence of non-hybridity, but merely
of the hybrid being occasionally fertilised by the pollen of some
other (probably one of the parent) forms. In these sterile hybrids
it appears to be the male element tbat is mostly at fault ; and
although its own pollen may be impotent, the pistil of the hybrid
may still be susceptible to the good pollen of an allied form, in
accordance with the law, acknowledged as general though not absolute,
that " the male organs of species-hybrids are functionally
weak to a higher degree than the female organs."
In conclusion, I may state that by the " Eritish plant " I allude
to the gatheriijgs of Mr. Alfred Fryer in Hunts and Cambridgesnire,
and by myself in Surrey and West Sussex.
R Un us Eli YTU PiIX I \S Genev.
By T. E. Archer Briggs, F.L.S.
In the ' Flora of Plymouth ' there will be found appended to the
particulars under lltthits hindU'iduus Lees, at page 112, a reference
to another bramble, which Dr. Focke, in his valuable and interest-
ing ' ' Notes on English Eubi,' recently published in the Journal of
Botany' (vol. xxviii. p. 97-103, 129-135), asserts to be the one
given in Genevier's ' Essai Monographique sur les Eubus du Bassin
de la Loire ' as Buhm enjtluinm. The paragraph respecting it which
I published in 1880 is as follows:—"We have a bramble very
common aboutPlymouth, certainly of the lUiamniJ'otii group, and aUied