. Plants of New Zealand. amoa, signifies a heap of prickles. TheMaoris have also bestowed this name upon the English furze,and upon brambles generally. The New Zealand species of Riibus do not present thebewildering variety of form that is found in the genus inCentral Europe ; but they nevertheless add considerably tothe perplexities of the local botanist. Nor have theseperplexities been reduced by the carelessness of variouswriters on New Zealand plants. Thus A. R. Wallace tells usthat In New Zealand the prickly Bithus is a leafless trailingplant, and its prickles are probably a protection ag
. Plants of New Zealand. amoa, signifies a heap of prickles. TheMaoris have also bestowed this name upon the English furze,and upon brambles generally. The New Zealand species of Riibus do not present thebewildering variety of form that is found in the genus inCentral Europe ; but they nevertheless add considerably tothe perplexities of the local botanist. Nor have theseperplexities been reduced by the carelessness of variouswriters on New Zealand plants. Thus A. R. Wallace tells usthat In New Zealand the prickly Bithus is a leafless trailingplant, and its prickles are probably a protection against thelarge snails of the country, several of which have shells fromtwo to three and a half inches long. Such an error couldscarcely have been made by anyone familiar with the naturalhistory of the country. Bubus is one of the commonestspecies on the edge of the forest ; and the snails referred tobelong to rare and disappearing species—rarely, if ever, found * Darwinism, Colonial Edition, p. 433. THE ROSE FAMILY 197. Fig. 59. Rubus Sclnnidelioides (4 nat size). 198 PLANTS OF NEW ZEALAND in the neighbourhood of Rubus. The correct explanation isgiven by tKerner. It is, perhaps, worth quoting :— A plant distinguished by its unusually rich development ofbarb-like spines, and deserving special mention here, is theNew Zealand bramble, Buhus squarrosus (B. cissoides).Each of its leaves is divided into three portions, each beingprovided with a tiny blade at its apex ; these three portions,as well as the leaf-stalk, are green throughout their entirelength, and beset with yellow pointed prickles, which anchorso firmly in the intertwined bushes and shrubs, that a whollyinextricable tangle is the result. The passage quoted is provided with a good illustration of aspray of B. cissoides. Some confusion has also been caused in the determinationof the species, by the neglect of most botanists to noticecarefully enough the relation between the form of the plantand its habitat. Dr. Cockay
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