12. BRAMBLE. PLATE 12. FRONTISPIECE. and almost endless tints the course of the year. ARVELLOUS is the diversity of colouring which suffuses stem, leaf, blossom and fruit in the Bramble. Indeed there is probably no other hedge or woodland shrub that equals it in the extraordinary which it wears during But the variations of colour assumed during the early period of leafage U and during the various stages of fruition by this charming plant, are far exceeded by the diversity of its autumnal hues. To describe the form and venation of the Bramble leaf may scarcely seem necessary, so common' is the shrub. Yet perhaps few plants are so little noticed as this by reason of its commonness;' and we may, at least, say that the three, four, or five leaflets of which its leaf is composed are well worthy of minute examination. From the general pear-shaped form the leaflets vary much, being sometimes much broader than they are at other times; sometimes more or less pointed at the apex; sometimes slightly depressed at the apex, and now and then nearly round in general form. Occasionally, and indeed not unfrequently, a leaf will be found to possess two normal leaflets and an abnormal or double leaflet, or one normal leaflet and two double leaflets; or, it may be, three normal leaflets and one double leaflet. The margins of the leaflets do not much differ in the character of their serratures, which are ordinarily acute and almost spinous. From the mid-vein, slightly waved branches run, on either side, generally in alternation and occasionally in opposite pairs, towards the leaflet edges. These branches are forked near their apices and are traversed by a series of rather prominent veinlets which run in a straggling direction across them. In the spaces of tissue between the lines of these veinlets the eye, aided by a magnifying-glass, can trace the course of a very beautiful network of venules. We can only indicate the prominent features of the colouring which overspreads the foliage of the autumnal Bramble. To give the mere colours and shades would require a long enumeration to describe the really endless combinations of them would be impossible. We will mention some of the colours and leaf-markings which we have found in a single lane, premising that these are not one-hundredth part of those which might easily be given. Of colours and shades we have found pale green, deep green, golden green and dark green; yellow, straw colour, orange, pink, light red, blood red, dark red, purple, light brown, golden brown, reddish brown, russet and bronze. Of colours, grouped on the same leaf, we have seen those which we will indicate in the following enumeration, giving priority, as we do so, to those shades or markings which predominate-pale straw. with a few green spots, and the tips of the serratures on the leaflet margins a pinkish red; pale green, with the principal veins brown, giving an appearance of brown stripes on the leaflets; orange with dark red spots and freckles, green spots and pinkish red serratures; rich, golden-orange with pale red, orange red and deep red spots and blotches, an overspreading hue of pale red merging into the orange ground, and serratures of deep red and pale red and crimson; dark green with dark purple bands (in the spaces between the principal veins) blotches, splashes and spots and a few reddish spots; purplish red with golden green, orange and yellow spots and other small markings; dull, almost bronze, green, with blood-red bands edged with orange and dark purple blotches; golden russet, nearly covering the entire leaf, but having dark brown veins and spots of deep red and green with an almost indefinable hue of red overspreading the russet; orange with pale, golden green, |