llow,' which is so brittle that every gale breaks off its
feeble twigs, and pollards. One of these, hollow and old, had upon its
top a crowd of parasites. A bramble had taken root there, and hung
over the side; a small currant-bush grew freely--both, no doubt,
unwittingly planted by birds--and finally the bines of the noxious
bitter-sweet or nightshade, starting from the decayed wood, supported
themselves among the willow-branches, and in autumn were bright with
red berries. Ash-stoles, the buds on whose boughs in spring are hidden
under black sheaths; nut-tree stoles, with ever-welcome nuts--always
stolen here, but on the Downs, where they are plentiful, staying till
they fall; young oak growing up from the butt of a felled tree. On
these oak-twigs sometimes, besides the ordinary round galls, there may
be found another gall, larger, and formed, as it were, of green scales
one above the other.

Where shall we find in the artificial and, to my thinking, tasteless
pleasure-grounds of modern houses so beautiful a shrubbery as this old
hedgerow? Nor were evergreens wanting, for the ivy grew thickly, and
there was one holly-bush--not more, for the soil was not affected by
holly. The tall cow-parsnip or 'gicks' rose up through the bushes; the
great hollow stem of the angelica grew at the edge of the field, on
the verge of the grass, but still sheltered by the brambles. Some
reeds early in spring thrust up their slender green tubes, tipped with
two spear-like leaves. The reed varies in height according to the
position in which it grows. If the hedge has been cut it does not
reach higher than four or five feet; when it springs from a deep,
hollow corner, or with bushes to draw it up, you can hardly touch its
tip with your walking-stick. The leaders of the black bryony, lifting
themselves above the bushes, and having just there nothing to cling
to, twist around each other, and two bines thus find mutual support
where one alone would fall of its own weight.

In the watery places the sedges send up their dark flowers, dusted
with light yellow pollen, rising above the triangular stem with its
narrow, ribbed leaf. The reed-sparrow or bunting sits upon the spray
over the ditch with its carex grass and rushes; he is a graceful bird,
with a crown of glossy black. Hops climb the ash and hang their
clusters, which impart an aromatic scent to the hand that plucks them;
broad burdock leaves, which the mouchers put on the top of their
bas