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MUSEUM NOTE NO. VIII.—COLLECTIONS
OF BRITISH RUBI
A COLLECTION of British Rubi Fruticosi, comprising
over 300 herbarium sheets, has recently been arranged and
collated. In addition to these, the Museum possesses a number
of duplicates and also of specimens unnamed or undetermin-
able by the Rev. W. Moyle Rogers.
The greater part of the collection was contained in the Powell
Herbarium, acquired by the Museum in 1904. Mr. J. T. Powell
(1833—1904) was a well-known collector of Rubi, and as very
many of his specimens have been examined and commented
upon by the Rev. W. Moyle Rogers, Prof. Babington and Dr.
Focke, they are particularly valuable to students of British
Brambles. Powell corresponded with many well-known botan-
ists and his collection is rich in specimens obtained through
the Watson Botanical Exchange Club.
The Essex Rubi are well represented, and a special col-
lection of Epping Forest Rubi, illustrating Powell's papers in
the Essex Naturalist1 are preserved separately from the general
series, though the latter contains duplicate specimens from Ep-
ping Forest.
Some of the specimens are of interest as being either actual
type-specimens, or duplicates collected in the same locality,
about the same time, and verified by a well-known authority.
R. rosaceus Wh. and N., subsp. Powellii Rogers.
This Epping Forest bramble was first recorded in 1892,2 as a variety
of R. hystrix Weihe, but in 1894 Moyle Rogers described it in the "Journal
of Botany"3 as a new species under the name of R. Powellii. In Rogers'
Conspectus of Rubi Fruticosi appended to Babington's "Manual" (1904)
it ranks as a subspecies, as shown above. A specimen of this subspecies
in the Herbarium bears the following note in Powell's handwriting, "New
variety. Named and described by the Rev. W. Moyle Rogers." The
specimen is from High Beach, Aug. 1893, and may be regarded as a type-
specimen.
R. pallidus Wh, and N., var. nov. leptopetalus.
A specimen in the Herbarium is marked "Rubus pallidus W. and N.
v. Lochri prius . .(leptopetalus var. nov. 'Handbook,' p. 75). Thicket in
Epping Forest, near Buckhurst Hill, S. Essex, 20. ix. 1888. Named by Rev.
W. Moyle Rogers. See Essex Naturalist XI. (1900), p. 267."
Of non-Essex specimens, the following are of interest:
R. Lintoni Focke. The specimen was collected by E. F. Linton, at
1 Essex Naturalist in. (1889), 20; v. (1891), 189; vi. (189a), 80; and "Two More Epping
Forest Rubi" xi. (1900), 257.
2 Essex Naturalist, vi. (1892), 80. 3 J. of Botany, 1894, p. 47.