Brambles, my lord

"Brambles of the British Isles" is a book by E.S. Edees, A. Newton and D.H. Kent. It was published by the Ray Society in 1988. The work is an account of those brambles growing wild in Britain and Ireland. But, to quote the humble authors, "it is not, however, a complete record of the genus Rubus in these islands, but rather a further milestone on the road to that elusive but desirable destination". Apparently, brambles are difficult from a taxonomical perspective - if the authors had described every local taxon with a distinctive appearance as a new species, the number of described species might have soared from 300 to 500! And remember, we're just talking the British Isles here.

Our authors also reveal that the classic in the field of "brambling", W.C.R. Watson's "Handbook of the Rubi of Great Britain and Ireland" isn't always reliable, since the old know-it-all simply refused to admit that he couldn't indentify every bramble in the south-east of England! (The authors knew him personally.)

As already indicated, "Brambles of the British Isles" describes hundreds of species of the genus Rubus. Range maps are included at the back of the book. The black-and-white photos don't seem to be of the best quality, and don't show all the species. It's a reference work, neither more nor less. Still, four stars for this bizarre effort at "brambling". I mean, Bramble sounds like the name of a senile member of the House of Lords...