Bramble

Bramble, the popular name for the various forms of the genus Rubus, constituting the species R. fruticosus of Linnaeus. These all agree in having a shrubby stem, without the suckers familiar in the raspberry, leaves of three or five leaflets not arranged pinnately, and a black fruit. They differ in the presence or absence of bristles and glandular hairs on the stem, the number, form and regularity of the prickles, the form of the leaf, the colour of the corolla, which is white or pink, the presence or absence of hairs on the calyx, its being green or white, the number, size and shade of the drupels in the fruit, the presence of a bloom on them, as in the Dewberry (q.v.), Rubus caesius, the rounded or angular form of the stem, its rooting at its apex and such characters. The young shoots are very astringent, and are used, with the fruit, in preparing blackberry brandy, an effective rustic anti-dysenteric.