p
trees, but it seems quite happy ramping over the hedges. It is now in
its freshest youth, and the careless way in which the young stems toss
themselves hither and thither gives an impression of endless living
things dancing with complete abandon on the hedge as on an airy floor.
The traveller's joy climbs by seizing hold of the branches of plants more
solid than itself. It grips them with its leaf-stalks, which serve as
tendrils and support the weakling stem aloft in the clear air. But as
yet they have hardly begun to fix themselves; though some I saw which had
caught each other, giving themselves a gay aspect by seeming to dance
hand in hand.

The white bryony is there also, and its tendrils have fastened on to the
hazel, beech and dog-wood, which make up the mass of the hedge. Their
tendrils are but delicate ropes, and when they have seized a twig they
would break away in the first fresh breeze. But this is prevented by the
fact that the tendrils contract into spiral springs, and by the
give-and-take of its elastic coils the cable becomes almost unbreakable
and the ship rides out the stiffest gale. {58a}

Two other types of climbing plants are common in our lane, which have
neither the grasping leafstalks of clematis nor the delicate tendrils of
white bryony. Black bryony is a twining plant, and can travel spirally
up the hazel stems, just as a hop ascends its pole. But here in our lane
there is but little to climb up, and its livid pink stems, often twisted
with one or more brother-strands, lie along the hedge or sway in the air
like discontented snakes. Just now they hardly show any leaves, but
later in the spring they will have finely polished ones, and later still
bunches of red berries, which do not seem to be popular with birds, and
hang on their branches till winter comes. Another type of climber which
shows itself early is the goose-grass. {58b} This is a humble personage,
probably looked down on by the superior climbers above described, as able
neither to swarm spirally nor to ascend by the aid of tendrils or other
gripping apparatus. The goose-grass depends on the possession of
delicate little hooks covering stem and leaves. These can be perceived
by stroking the plant from the base upwards, but not in the other
direction. The hooks being directed downwards do not hinder the upward
push of the growing plant, but they prevent it from slipping downwards.
If one disentangles a goose-grass from i