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OUK WOODLANDS,
WITH NOTICES OF THEIR IXSECT INHABITANTS.
BY W. S. COLEMAN,
MEMBER OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.
Illustrated bg ilje gulbor.
LONDON" :
EOUTLEDGE, WAEXES, & ROUTLEDGE,
FAIIRINGDON STREET.
NEW YORK: 56, WALKER STREET.
1859.
LONDON:
RICHARD CLAY, rltlNTEK, 1!KKAI fcVKtfcT 1I1H,
Stock
Annex
r
06?
P B, E E A C E.
IN that pleasant and popular little work by the Rev.
J. G. Wood, entitled "Common Objects of the Country,"
the author has proved how lively an interest may he
imparted by a familiar yet accurate account of some of
the most ordinary productions of nature, such as are
daily to be seen around us, tho subjects so happily
treated of in its pages being selected almost exclusively
from among the insect tribes and minor animals. The
limited compass of a pocket volume could, however,
embrace a small proportion only of tho multitudinous
objects which give animation to the country, while
many departments of natural history, both in the
animal and vegetable kingdoms, were necessarily omitted
altogether.
It occurred to the publishers of the above-mentioned
work, that, among the various rural topics thus left
open, the subject of "British Trees and Shrubs" though
naturally one of prominent interest, was yet one on
which there existed no illustrated work apart from the
cyclopaedic form ; and therefore, in the belief that a
2091233
IV PREFACE.
popular treatise supplying this manifest desideratum,
would prove to be generally acceptable, they applied
to the writer of the present volume to undertake the
execution of their projected design. His own experi-
ence confirms the very general belief that the majority
of ramblers in the country, even inclusive of those fur-
nished with some general botanical knowledge, are
usually quite at a loss, when called upon to name the
various wild trees and shrubs they meet with, or how
to discriminate between them. Most people can, cer-
tainly, recognize the Oak, especially if they get a sight
of its acorns. Some, too, will probably call an Elm by
its right name, and so with three or four others of
our most familiar trees ; but as to the distinction be-
tween the Beech and the Hornbeam, for instance, they
will probably be quite at fault, or only make a vague
guess at most ; while the less frequent trees are to
them utterly nameless and unknown. Although the
knowledge of names merely is a very poor acquisition,
yet it is obvious enough that the first essential step in
the acquirement of useful information concerning any
object, is, to clearly identify that object with its name.
It has been the special object of the writer to convey,
by the simplest means literary and pictorial an accu-
rate knowledge of the various Trees and Shrubs indi-
genous to Britain, as well as of their uses, beauties, and
attributes ; and in order to enhance the interest of the
subject, he has added notes on some of the animal
inhabitants and insect tribes, whose history is often
PREFACE. V
most intimately connected with that of the plants they
attach themselves to.
A few trees have also been introduced which, though
really of foreign origin, have become so thoroughly
naturalized on our soil, and from their character are so
identified in our minds as native productions, as to rank
harmoniously with the older denizens of English forests
and woodlands.
LOXDOX, April, 1859.
CONTENTS.
PACK
INTRODUCTORY 1
THE OAK . . . 4
THE BEECH. (Fayt/s syhaticns) 15
THE HORNBEAM. (Carpinus Belvlus) 19
THE Asu. (Fraxinus excelsior) 21
THE ELM. ( Ulmus campestr is) . 24
THE WYCII ELM, OR SCOTCH ELM. (Ulmiis moniand) . ... 28
THE BIRCH. (Belida alba) 29
THE DWARF BIRCH. (Behda. ndna) 33
THE SCOTCH PINE OR FIR. (Pitius sylvestris) ...... 33
THE LARCH. (Ldrix Eitropa/a) . 37
THE FIELD MAPLE. (A'cer campesire) ......... 38
THE SYCAMORE. (.4'v Pseudo-plaJanvs) 40
THE LIME-TREE, OK, LINDEN. (TUia Europafa) 42
THE WALNUT. (Jwjlans reyia) 4
THE EATABLE OR SPANISH CHESTNUT. (Castdnea ve'sca) ... 47
THE HORSE CHESTNUT. (lE!sculns Hippocdstntinm) ..... CO
THE WILD PEAR TREE. (Pyrus commwiis) 52
THE WILD APPLE OR CRAB-TREE. (Pyrus Malus) 53
THE WILD SERVICE TREE. (Pyrus tormindlis) 55
THE WHITE BEAM TREE. (Pyrus Aria) ........ 56
THE MOUNTAIN ASH, OR ROAN TREE. (Pyrus Aucupdria) . . 57
THE MEI.LAR. (Metpilus germtuiica) 59
THE ALDER. (A'lnus glutinosa) 61
THE WILLOW G2
THE COMMON WHITE WILLOW. (Sdlix dlba) 64
THE GOAT-WILLOW, OR SAUGH. (Sdlix cdprea) 67
THE COMMON OSIER (Sdlix vimindlis) 70
THE WHITE POPLAR OR ABELE TREE. (Populus dlba) ... 72
THE ASPEN, OR TREMBLING POPLAR. (Pojittlm tremula) ... 74
THE BLACK POPLAR. (Populus niyra) 76
THE LOMBARDY POPLAR. (Popidus fastiyidta) 77
THE YEW. (Tdxus baccdta) 78
THE MISTLETOE. (V'tscum album) 82
THE IVY (Hedera ffilix) 83
THE ARBUTUS, OB STRAWBERRY-TREE. (A'rbitlw vnedo) ... 85
YU1 CONTENTS.
PAGE
THE HEATH-LANDS SO
THE FURZE, OR GORSE. (Ulex Europdus) 89
THE BILBERRY. (Vaccinium Myrt'Mus) 01
THE BLEABERRY, OR BOG WHORTLEBERRY. (Vaccininm i/liyi-
nosum) 93
THE COWBERRY, OR MOUNT IDA WHORTLEBERRY. (Facciniiim
ritiildaia) 93
THE CRANBERRY. (Oxycoccm palustrii) 95
THE COMMON BEARBERRY. (Arctostdpkylos Uva-Ursi) .... 90
THE BLACK CROWBERRY. (Empelrum niyruni) 97
THE COMMON JUNIPER. (Junipervs communis) 93
THE Box. (Buzus sempervirens) 100
THE SWEET GALE, OR CANDLEBERRY MYRTLE. (Mi/rica Gale) . 101
THE LEAST WILLOW. (Sdlix herbdcea) 102
THE CLOUD-BERRY. (Rubin Chanuemorus) 103
THE STONE BRAMBLE. (Rubvs saxdtil'u) 104
THE WILD RASPBERRY. (Mbvs idaus) 105
DEWBERRY, OR GREY BRAMBLE. (Rubus coffins) IOC
THE COMMON BLACKBERRY, OR BRAMBLE. (ftibvt frvtic6nu] . 107
THE HEDGES 109
THE HAWTHORN, OR WHITETHORN. (Crafayits Qjcyacantlui) . . 110
THE HOLLY. (Ilex Aquifolium) 11-2
THE IlMTLi,.(C6rylus Avelldtia) 114
THE BIRD CHERRY. (Pruitus Pddus) 1H'>
THE SLOE, OR BLACKTHORN. (Prunns spinosa) 117
THE BARBERRY. (Berleris vnlffdris) 119
THE GUELDER EOSF. (fibumum Opttlvs) 1-0
THE WAYFARING TREE. (Tiburnum Lanfand) 1-1
THE BUCKTHORN. (Rhdmniis cafhdrtints) 1~-
THE SEA BUCKTHORN, OR SALLOW THORN. (IIipp6pJt&e rham-
noiilts) . . . ]-T,
THE DOGWOOD, OR WILD CORNEL. (Cornits sanyuinea) . . . 1-*
THE Sl'lNDLE-TlU3E. (Euonymus citropx? us) 1~5
THE ELDER. (Sambucus t<i</ra) ]2(i
WILD HOSES 1:27
THE WOODBINE, OR COMMON HONEYSUCKLE. (Lunicera Peri-
clymenuni) 130
THE PERFOLIATE HONEYSUCKLK. (Lonicera Caprifoliuni) . . . 131
WILD CURRANTS AND GOOSEBERRIES. (Genus Ribes) .... 13)
THE PRIVET. (Ligustrum vulydre) 13-2
THE BUTCHER'S BROOM. (Ruse us aculedlus) 133
APPENDIX 1^5
OUR WOODLANDS,
7
HEATHS, AND HEDGES.
INTRODUCTORY.
BEFORE \ve proceed to describe in detail the subject-
matter of the following pages, we think it desirable to
offer some brief preliminary remarks applicable to the
subject in general.
To begin with definitions. Trees, and their lesser
relatives, shrubs, are defined to be, plants possessed of
a firm, woody stem, divided at a certain height into
branches, which terminate in leaves ; while herbaceous
plants, in contradistinction to these, have all the parts
of a fleshy texture, and are destitute of woody stems.
Such a plant, for example, is the Primrose, in common
with the majority of our wild flowers. The further
distinction between a tree and a shrub is a somewhat
arbitrary one, depending only on their relative size ; or,
in other words, a shrub is merely a tree of humbler
growth ; and, indeed, we find that frequently a plant
that takes the form of a shrub in one locality, rises into
the dimensions of a tree when placed under more fa-
vouring circumstances of soil and atmosphere.
Trees are not only the grandest of vegetable produc-
tions, but they far exceed all other organized structures,
animal or vegetable, in magnitude and in longevity ;
while their vast and essential importance to the well-
being of man, and the beauty of the earth, can only be
B
2 OUR WOODLANDS.
estimated in some degree by mentally comparing the
aspect and condition of a treeless world with that we
now enjoy, so bounteously furnished by Providence with
these objects of greatest ornament and utility. Without
the aid of timber, the arts and manufactures of civilized
life could hardly have progressed to any satisfactory
extent. Our architecture, our ships, machinery, furni-
ture, agricultural implements, &c., all owe their very
existence to that of trees.
Again, in the absence of trees, where would be the
charm of landscape scenery, the tufted hill-side, the
tree-embosomed lake, the forest-glade, and all the thou-
sand delights of country life, which are so intimately
associated with the presence of trees ? But we need
not further enlarge on these considerations, which are
patent to the feelings of every one of us.
A\ T e must, however, mention one peculiar advantage
which trees possess, as landscape ornaments, over the
more evanescent herbaceous plants, and that is, their
constant, yet changeful beauty in every season of the
year ; a quality especially observable in those large
assemblies of various trees, called forests, where the
charm of wild sylvan Nature reigns paramount. Lovely
are the woodlands in fresh early Spring, when bright
buds of tenderest verdure are put forth, to the song of
the feathered choir, whose nests are rocked in many a
leafy bough. Deeply beautiful are they in full Summer,
with their cool and welcome shade, the hum of many
insects, and that sweet airy nmsic produced by the
rustling branches. Then, as the golden Autumn steals
over the forest, comes the period of its richest glory ;
that in which the painter revels, vainly tasking his
palette for its imitation : and though these bright hues
are the tokens of decay, the foliage has a glory in its
approaching dissolution, unknown to it in youth and
" Those virgin leaves, of purest vivid green,
Which charm'd ere yet they trembled on the trees,
Now cheer the sober landscape in decay :
INTRODUCTORY. 3
The lime first fading ; and the golden birch,
With bark of silver hue ; the moss-grown oak,
Tenacious of its leaves of russet brown ;
The ensanguined dog- wood ; and a thousand tints,
Which Flora dress' d in all her pride of bloom
Could scarcely equal, decorate the groves."
The leaves fall; tender plants wither and wholly
disappear ; and Winter comes : but even he fails to
rob the forest trees of their grandeur, and of all their
graces also ; while the advent of snow re-invests each
twig and branch with a strange fantastic array, emu-
lating in beauty with their summer vesture.
It will be unnecessary here to enter into a description
of the organization, growth, &c. of trees, which are
similar in those respects to other plants , this it is the
province of Botany to elucidate ; and we must there-
fore refer the reader, desirous of becoming acquainted
with the general phenomena of vegetable life, and the
various structures concerned in it, to one of the nu-
merous popular works on that interesting science.
We have, however, considered it desirable, for the
benefit of those readers who have mastered the terms
used in botanical description, to give, in the form of
foot-notes, the generic and specific characters of each
plant, framed in accordance with those made use of in
London's "Encyclopaedia" of Plants.
We would here cordially recommend to the reader a
work called " Wild Flowers, and how to gather them,"
by Spencer Thompson, M.D. &c. ; in the first part of
which will be found an excellent introduction to the
structure and functions of the different organs of a
plant, with an explanation of the technical terms used
in Botanv.
B2
4 OUK WOODLANDS.
THE OAK.
AT tlie head of our indigenous trees hallowed by
innumerable associations and traditions stands the
majestic Oak, the Monarch of the Forest. But, before
we proceed to expatiate upon its varied claims to our
admiration and fond regard, we must first give a brief
account of its botanical character.
It will be noticed that in Plate A, two forms of the
Oak are figured, in one of which the acorns are sup-
ported on long footstalks, while in the other they are
directly seated, or as it is termed, " sessile," upon the
branch ; there are also some few other unimportant dis-
tictions between the two, which have led modern
botanists to regard them as two distinct species, to which
they have given the scientific names of Quercus pedun-
culata, 1 the Peduncled Oak (Plate A, fig. 1), and
Quercus sessiliflora? the Sessile-fruited Oak (Plate A,
lig. 2), and to lend countenance to this distinction, it was
supposed that the timber of the sessile-fruited kind was
much inferior to that of the common or peduncled Oak for
ship-building and other purposes, but recent experi-
ments have proved pretty satisfactorily that there is but
little to choose between the two j the former in some
cases excelling the latter, and vice versd, according to the
more or less favourable nature of the soil on which the
respective trees had been grown.
As the differences, therefore, whether sufficiently
marked to constitute distinct species, or merely varie-
ties, are practically so unimportant, and, as the history
1 Quercus pedunculata. Nat. order, Corylacece ; Lin. Syst.
MoncBcia Polyandria. Gen. char. : Barren flower in a lax
catkin ; perianth, single, somewhat 5-cleft ; stamens, 5 to 10.
Fertile flower, involucre, cup-shaped, scaly; perianth, single,
incorporated with the germen, 6-lobed : germen 3-celled, 2 of
them abortive, style 1, stigmas 3. Spec. char. : Leaves oblong,
subsessile, smooth, sinuated ; lobes, round ; fruit, obloug, stalked.
2 Q. sessiliflora. Spec. char. : Leaves deciduous, oblong,
smooth, dilated upwards, stalked ; lobes, obtuse ; stalks of fruit
elongated; nut, oblong.
THE OAK. 5
and statistics of the two trees are almost identical, we
prefer to simplify the matter by generally speaking of
them indiscriminately as the Oak, though we shall
nevertheless figure the two forms for those who wish for
a more exact knowledge of the subject.
The peduncled Oak is generally the most abundant of
the two kinds, but it has been remarked that in some
few parts of the country the sessile-fruited tree prevails
almost exclusively.
The growth of the Oak is slower than that of any
other native forest tree, and it requires several centuries
to attain its full grandeur. The Great Oak at Panshan-
ger, for instance, one of the most magnificent trees in
the country, is more than 250 years old, but has stiii all
the vigour and beauty of a young tree, and may be con-
sidered as yet in its prime, although a century ago, it
was called the Great Oak.
The young trees usually first produce acorns when
about fifteen to eighteen years old, though in some cases it
occurs earlier than this. These acorns, or " oak-mast,"
as they are collectively called, are not now regarded of
the same importance that they were in days of yore, the
demand for them being chiefly confined to the small
number required to insure a future supply of trees. Time
was, when our remote and rough progenitors had little
better fare to look to in the way of daily bread than
this kindly largess of the Oak ; and this, moreover, with
no great detriment to its health and longevity, if
we are to credit the flattering report of the poet, who
speaks of men that
" Fed with, the Oakeu mast,
The aged trees themselves in age surpassed."
The name ' acorn ' itself seems to point to its use as a sub-
stitute for the cereals, ' Ac ' being the Saxon original of
the word ' Oak ; ' so that acorn is simply ' oak-corn.'
As civilization advanced, however, this simple aliment
was almost entirely abandoned by man in favour of
wheat and other varieties of food, while swine took his
6 OUR WOODLANDS.
place in the woods, and to them the acorn crop, except
in times of famine, has for ages past been resigned.
In the records of early English history frequent refer-
ence is made to the feeding of swine in the woods,
under the name of "pannage," oaks in those days,
being principally valued 011 account of the food they
afforded. Evelyn says, in reference to their use in this
respect, that " a peck of acorns a day, with a little bran,
will make a hog increase a pound weight per diem for
two months together."
It is evident from history that the surface of Britain
was formerly far more covered with oak-forests than at
present ; and the names of towns and other places
derived from this tree are extremely numerous, much
exceeding those associated by name with any other ;
although the beech, ash, and elm lay claim to a similar
distinction. But we must bear in mind that our present
orthography of 0-a-k was not always that adopted by
our ancestors for this tree, the original Saxon being,
as above-mentioned, Ac ; then through a series of vari-
ations, ack, oc, oxe, auck, uck, hoke, and divers other
contortions ; thus a w was tacked on at the beginning-
making it wok, &c., much in the same way as, in some
parts of the country, we may still hear the rustic speak
of oats as "wuts."
With this explanation very many names may be
recognised as having been derived from this national
tree, even when the actual word " Oak " does not at
all appear. The London suburb of ^cton is equiva-
lent to Oak-town ; Acimgton, Oakring-town ; Wock-
ham, ffokenorton and a host of others might be adduced
as associated in one way or another with the Oak.
The use of oak timber for maritime and domestic
purposes is coeval in this country with the growth of
civilization. The Ancient Britons indeed appear to
have possessed some sort of an oak-built navy from the
earliest periods of their history ; when they were content
to live ashore without houses but in caves ; and so
efficient were they that the Romans complained a good
THE OAK. 7
deal of the toughness of our ships' sides, on which the
"beaks" of their war galleys could make but little
impression. 1
Passing to later times, AVG find the timber of the Oak
becomes an object of paramoimt value and importance,
identifying itself with Britain's naval and mercantile
greatness.
" Let India boast her plants, nor envy we
The weeping amber and the balmy tree ;
While by our Oaks the precious loads are borne,
And realms commanded which those trees adorn."
POPE.
The same qualities of surpassing strength and dura-
bility, which led to the employment of oak in ship-
building, naturally recommended its use in sacred and
domestic architecture ; and accordingly, in all our oldest
cathedrals, churches, and other edifices, we meet with
examples of oak, often of equal antiquity with the
building itself, and yet as strong and sound at heart as
when placed there centuries ago. As a familiar instance,
we may mention the carved oaken shrine of Edward the
Confessor, in Westminster Abbey, executed some 800
years since. At Winchester, in St. Stephen's Chapel,
is preserved as one of the chief curiosities of the place,
a circular table of oak, eighteen feet across, and all in
one entire piece ; being, in fact, a transverse slice from
the trunk of an immense tree. This is actually believed,
by many, to be the real old " King Arthur's Round
Table," so famous in history ; and, if we may credit suci
a notion, here is to be seen a piece of oak furniture
1,300 years old. At any rate, there is abundant and
direct evidence that it has been in the place where it
now is for 700 years ; an age sufficient to entitle it to
be regarded as a most precious and venerable relic.
At Greenstead, near Ongar, in Essex, there is a very
curious old wooden church, the walls of which are
1 The name of our island in the ancient British tongue was
" Claa Merddin," " The sea-defended green spot," a title,
beautiful and appropriate, from that time to this.
8 OUR WOODLANDS.
framed of oak trunks split through the centre, and
roughly pegged together. This church is believed to
have been hastily put up, more than 900 years ago, as a
temporary sanctum, for the body of St. Edmund (slain
A. D. 946), and afterwards converted into a parish church,
with some slight additions and alterations. The original
timbers, after this immense lapse of time, are still sound
internally, and may probably last yet as long a time as
they have done already.
The timber in many old buildings, which till lately
had always been considered to be chestnut, has been
proved to be that of the sessile-fruited Oak, which has
more of what is called technically the "flash," or silver
grain, and has altogether a paler appearance than that
of the commoner, or peduncled kind.
Of all organized objects in creation, whether animal
or vegetable, a tree has by far the longest existence, and,
among English trees, the Oak exceeds all others in longe-
vity j 1 so that Dryden has rather under, than over esti-
mated its duration, in those fine lines describing the
course of an old Oak :
" The monarch. Oak, the patriarch of trees,
Shoots rising up, and spreads by slow degrees ;
Three centuries he grows, and three he stays,
Supreme in state, and in three more decays."
Throughout our land, there is hardly a district that is
without its oaks, remarkable for their immense age, size,
or legendary and historical associations. Of these, we
could, did space permit, give a copious list ; but must
be content with selecting a few of the more notable
examples.
One of the grandest and oldest of these is the Cow-
thorpe Oak, standing on the banks of the river Mdd, in
Yorkshire, which, close to the ground, measures seventy-
eight feet in circumference ; one of the branches of this
tree, blown off in a gale of wind, contained upwards of
five tons of wood. In Norfolk is the Winfarthing Oak,
1 Possibly excepting the Yew, which is known sometimes to
attain to a vast age.
THE OAK. U
said to have been an old tree at the time of the Con-
quest, though its exact age is unknown. The circum-
ference of the trunk is seventy feet, and within its
hollow stem there is room sufficient to accommodate
thirty persons. The Merton Oak, on Lord Walsing-
harn's estate, in the same county, has also an enormous
trunk, sixty-three feet in circumference. The Salcey-
forest Oak in Northamptonshire, is supposed, on good
grounds, to be more than 1,500 years old, and is de-
scribed by Sir T. D. Lauder as " one of the most pic-
turesque sylvan ruins that can be met with anywhere."
Though much decayed and wasted it still produces an
annual crop of leaves and acorns.
In Nannau Park, near Dolgelly, North "Wales, there
stood an immense Oak (twenty-seven feet in girth) which
had for centuries been celebrated among the "Welsh, by
the various names of the " Hobgoblin's Hollow-Tree," the
"Haunted Oak," the " Spirit-Blasted Tree ;" and there is
a weird tradition concerning it, that Howel Sele, a Welsh
chieftain, and once Lord of Nannau, was killed in a
hunting quarrel by his cousin Owen Glendower and his
friend Madoc, none others being near to see the deed.
But before life was yet extinct, the murderers bore the
body of the unfortunate Howel to this tree, and hid it
in the hollow trunk. Glendower hastened to his strong-
hold, Glendewrdry, and the friends of Howel, alarmed
at his non-appearance, sought long but vainly for him ;
and though it is said that groans and hollow sounds
were heard by those who wandered near the tree, none
bethought themselves to look within the trunk. So
years passed by ; the old Oak preserved the bloody trust
confided to it, till at last a time came when the cruel
Owen Glendower found himself on his death-bed, and
unwilling that his dread secret should survive him, he
extorted a promise from Madoc, his accomplice, to
divulge the truth. Madoc kept his word, search was
made in the spot indicated, and in the hollow of the tree
appeared the skeleton of Howel, in an upright posture,
and grasping with bony hand his rusted sword. The
10 OUR WOODLANDS.
remains of Howel were thereupon removed to the
neighbouring monastery of Cymmer for interment, and
masses were performed for the repose of his troubled
spirit. So runs the legend, and the Haunted Oak was
pointed at for 400 years after the discovery of its
sepulchral character, till in 1813 it was blown down, and
its wood, very dark and beautiful, was manufactured
into a variety of objects to gratify the curious in such
relics.
The Cadenham Oak, in the New Forest, about two
miles from Lyndhurst, is less remarkable for its age
than for its curious property of putting forth annually
a few leaves at Christmas-time.
In Clipstone Park, Nottinghamshire, stands a vene-
rable tree, called the Parliament Oak, from a tradition
that under its branches a parliament was held by Edward
the First in the year 1290 ; and it is probable that it
was, even at that remote time, an old and large tree.
In these grand living monuments of the past there is
a peculiar interest, which attaches to no other object, and
which serves to intensify our attachment to the time-
honoured country of our birth ; for we are conscious,
when looking at one of these, that we are in the presence
of that selfsame life, which began, it may be, in Saxon
times, a thousand years ago, and now, Avhile generation
after generation of human beings, as well as of other
creatures, have lived and died around it, while dynasty
after dynasty has risen and fallen, great revolutions have
occurred, and new worlds have been discovered, there
it stands, the same majestic, brave old Oak, clothing with
yearly verdure the same branches Avhich canopied, per-
chance, not only monarchs, but still greater men in days
of yore.
As to the picturesque attributes of the Oak, every
lover of nature and student of art will appreciate its high
value as a component part of landscape scenery, whether
regarded in the rich beauty of its prime, or in the
gnarled majesty of its old age and decay, and this,
independently of those associations which have rendered
THE OAK. 11
the Oak pre-eminently the tree of the poet and of the
historian. In every natural situation the presence of
the Oak is welcome, and sure to heighten the interest of
the scene. As Gilpin, in his eloquent eulogy of the Oak
observes : " It adds new dignity to the ruined tower
and the Gothic arch ; by stretching its wild moss-grown
branches athwart their weird walls, it gives them a kind
of majesty coeval with itself ; at the same time, its pro-
priety is still preserved if it throws its arms over the
purling brook or the mantling pool, where it beholds
' Its reverend image in the expanse below." "
And winter, even, does not divest it of its grandeur, for
then its massive trunk, and the grim contortions of its
Herculean limbs are displayed with startling effect.
Truly, the Oak is the King of our Forests.
The superstitions and legends investing the Oak
handed down from the earliest ages of all nations among
whom it grows can only be glanced at here. The
Greeks fabled that Jupiter took this tree under his
protection, giving the Oaks of Dodona the power of
augury, and thus making them " talking Oaks." From
its leaves were wreathed the civic crowns of the Romans,
and the mysteries of Druidism were performed under
groves of this venerated tree.
" The sacred Oaks,
Among whose awful shades the Druids strayed,
To cut the hallow'd mistletoe, and hold
High converse with their gods."
The poetry of our country abounds in allusions to this
tree, but, we think, the finest poem wholly addressed to
it is Cowper's " Yardley Oak."
Of the medicinal properties of the Oak, otherwise than
as a simple astringent, there is little to say, notwith-
standing the list of virtues attributed to it by our
forefathers, and enumerated by Evelyn in his " Sylva ;"
and the assertion gravely made by one Paulus, a
Danish physician, we venture to disbelieve, that "a
12 OUR WOODLANDS.
handful or two of small oak-buttons mingled with oats
and given to horses which are black, will, in a few days
eating, alter their colour to a fine dapple grey ; and this
because of the vitriol abounding in the tree." A decoc-
tion of oak-bark has, however, been sometimes used in
modern medicine, but more powerful astringents imported
from abroad, such as Peruvian-bark, &c., are generally
preferred to it.
It remains yet to speak of that teeming insect popu-
lation of the Oak, the immense variety of which renders
it a perfect treasury to the naturalist, and Avhose history
would of itself fill a volume ; for no portion of the tree
is exempt from the tax which these little tribes lay
upon it. Of this host, the greater number find food
and shelter in the foliage, but some eat into the wood
itself, while others carry on mining operations in and
under the bark, which they drill in all directions.
Altogether, no less than some 1,500 species of insects
have been described as subsisting on the Oak ; and about
500 more being attached to these as parasites, it brings
the whole number to about 2,000 different species, all
depending, directly or indirectly, on the Oak for support.
We do not, of course, mean to say that all this assembly
is to be found upon a single tree, or at one season ; but
a very considerable number of kinds will reward the
search of the naturalist during every month of the year,
the summer and autumnal months being, as might be
supposed, the most productive.
That glory of butterfly collectors, the Purple Em-
peror, is celebrated for his attachment to the Oak,
enthroning himself on the loftiest branch, from Avhich
ever and anon he takes that lordly flight, that so often
tantalizes the eager entomologist, who has small chances
of securing the prize, unless armed with a net on a pole
some thirty feet long. But the only butterfly that really
feeds on the Oak is the Purple Hair-streak, a very lively
and beautiful little insect, Avhose sports on and around
the tree we have watched with great pleasure and
amusement. Three or four of these little butterflies
THE OAK. 13
often engage together in a series of rapid evolutions
half sportive, half pugnacious the purple of their wings
glittering beautifully as they dart in and out among the
foliage.
ri-npi.r. nim-STttEiK BI -
Of moths, a great host inhabit the tree, including
many of our finest kinds, such as the Goat Moth and
Wood-leopard Moth, the caterpillars of which consume
the solid wood, boring long galleries through the .trunk ;
others feed on the leaves, in the larva state : among
these the Oak Egger, the Emperor, the Buff- tip, the
Lobster, the Merveil du Jour, the Red Underwings, the
Oak Beauty, and divers other beautiful species.
There is a large section of diminutive moths, whose
habits form a very interesting study for the naturalist,
as they adopt varied and curious modes of protecting
themselves while feeding and undergoing their trans-
formations. Some joining several leaves together by
means of silken threads, so as to form a hollow case, in
which the creature dwells ; others attain the like object
by rolling up a single leaf : this is done by the very
common and beautiful little green Oak Moth. 1
1 Figured and described in " The Common Objects of the
Country," by Rev. J. G. Wood ; as also, is the Emperor Moth,
and some others of the Oak-feeding insects.
14 OUR WOODLANDS.
Others, again, feed on the inner substance of the leaf,
inserting themselves between the upper and lower mem-
branes, which they leave uninjured ; this produces those
bladdery-looking blotches often seen on the Oak-leaf.
Several of our largest beetles also feed on the Oak,
some on the wood, and others on the leaves ; among the
latter is the common Cockchafer, which is often a terrible
enemy to this tree, Avhole forests of it having been
stripped of their foliage by this devastating insect. The
giant Stag-beetle feeds upon the rotten wood found in
hollow stumps of oak Those singular productions
called " galls " are more numerous on this than on any
other tree. They are to be found in diversified forms
on the dead branches and flower-stalks ; these origi-
nate in the puncture of minute insects called Gall-flies
(Cynips), and are designed for the protection of their
tender offspring. Oak-apples, so much in vogue on the
" Twenty-ninth, of May,
Oak- Apple Day,"
are also excrescences of this nature, as are the galls used
for dyeing and ink-making, which are largely imported
from abroad, but these are the produce of another
species of oak ; those found in this country, however,
possess nearly the same properties. The pretty " Oak-
spangles," which stud the under side of the leaves,
were formerly considered to be parasitic fungi, but are
now ascertained to be the work of gall-flies, as also are
those currant-like little spheres attached to the flower-
stalk. But want of space compels us to abbreviate this
subject, and we must altogether omit describing in detail
the numerous tribes of plants which are parasitic on the
Oak, consisting of mosses, lichens, and fungi. The
mistletoe, though occasionally found on the Oak, is far
more frequent on other trees, and will have a separate
notice.
THE OAK. 15
THE BEECH. (Fagiis sylvaticus.}
WELL do we remember how, in our school-boy days,
when first set down to puzzle out the Pastorals of
Virgil, our imagination dwelt on the tantalizing allusion,
to " beechen-shades," in the well-known,
" Tityre, tu patulse recubans sub tegmine fagi,"
till we would ahiiost have exchanged persons with even
an " old classical party " like Tityrus,
to be in the beechwoods too, instead
of that hot, close school-room ; with
a mossy turf beneath, and the flicker-
ing green leaves, the squirrel, and the
birds above us, in lieu of the hard
" form " and low cracked ceiling that
were our seat and canopy.
Thus mentally wandering in wood-
land dreams^ our real bucolic business
lias eke been forgotten till, instead
of awaking to find ourselves under
beechen boughs, we were, perchance,
aroused to duty by the twigs of a less pleasant tree, to
wit, " the birch," waving over us with a dismal hiss.
Among our truly indigenous forest-trees, the Beech
must certainly rank as second only to the oak, for
majesty and picturesqueness j while, for the union of
1 Fagus sylvatica. Nat. order, Corylacece ; Lin. eyst.
Monoscia Pdyandria. Gen. char. : Barren flower in a globose
catkin ; perianth, single, of 1 leaf, campanulate, 6-cleft ; stamens,
5 to 12. Fertile flower 2, within a 4-lobed prickly involucre ;
perianth, single, urceolate, with 4-5 minute lobes ; germen,
incorporated with the perianth, 3-celled, two of them becoming
abortive ; styles 3 ; nuts 1 seeded, invested with the enlarged
involucre. Spec. char. : Leaves ovate, glabrous, obsoletely
dentate, their margins ciliated.
16 OUU WOODLANDS.
grace and nobility, it may claim precedence over every
other member of our Sylva. 1
Having said this, we must, as a matter of course,
dissent from the opinion of Gilpin, the highly gifted
author of "Forest Scenery," who has, and as we think,
unjustly, impugned the ornamental character of this
generally favourite tree ; and this, because he had some
crotchets of his own about landscape composition, and
the shape that trees ought to take to make them good
subjects for the pencil The Beech did not happen to
fit itself to his theory, so he quarrelled with it, and
called it hard names. The most beautiful tree-portrait
we ever remember to have seen was that of a Beech
exhibited a season or two ago at one of the Water-colour
Societies, and we are sure that no one looking at this,
could allow, with Gilpin, that the Beech was not
admirable in a picture.
The autumnal hues of the Beech are rich and glowing
in the extreme ; and when a beech-grove has assumed
the intense orange yellow which it displays at a certain
season, the effect is most striking ; the radiance over-
head being repeated by the fallen leaves below, till earth
and air seem saturated with golden light.
There is great picturesque beauty in the trunk of an
old Beech, generally fantastic in form, with all sorts of
hollows and knobs, often with the semblance of clustered
columns, giving a fine Gothic effect ; but the great
charm of this part of the tree lies in the smooth olive-
grey bark painted and gilded with various-tinted lichens,
and embossed with large patches of dark velvet-green
moss, which spreads most luxuriantly over the high-
growing roots, and renders them the most tempting of
rustic seats.
This bark, too, from its smooth and tender surface,
especially invites the wandering lover to carve thereon
the name he adores ; and thus we often find a noble
1 The Sweet Chestnut can hardly be called with propriety a
native forest-tree ; otherwise it would at least divide the
honours with the Beech.
THE BEECH. 17
beech-trunk, profusely " illustrated with cuts," in that
well-known, style of art which has been in vogue from
the earliest times with the victims of sentiment, includ-
ing Shakspeare's Orlando, the culprit referred to in the
speech of Rosalind :
" There is a man haunts the forest, that abuses our young
trees with carving Rosalind on their barks."
There is an extraordinary variety of the Beech called
the Purple Beech, now become pretty frequent in parks
and pleasure grounds, which has its leaves, when quite
young, of a cherry-red colour ; and at midsummer, when
quite matured, of such an intense purple, as to look
almost black; producing a strange, and yet pleasing
eifect, when seen at a distance, in combination with the
green of other trees, to which it acts as a foil.
The original tree, from which all the Purple Beeches
in Europe have been derived, was found by accident in
a wood in Germany about ninety years ago, but what
gave rise to such a remarkable and permanent deviation
from the ordinary colour of the foliage, it is impossible
to say.
The Copper-coloured Beech, often seen with the last,
is merely a sub-variety, with the purple element less
developed.
The fruit of the Beech, called "beech-mast," is
a bristly capsule (as shown in the figure above), contain-
ing two sharp cornered triangular nuts, which, falling
from the husk in October and November, may then
be found scattered on the ground beneath. The kernel
resembles the hazel-nut in its pleasant flavour, and is
considered to be of very wholesome quality; but as
an article of utility, beech-mast is generally neglected
in this country ; a few pigs and poultry only being
sent into the woods to feed and fatten on it. On the
Continent, however, large quantities of oil, excellent
both for burning and culinary purposes, are extracted
from the kernels, which in some districts thus become
an important source of profit to the inhabitants.
c
18 OUR WOODLANDS.
The wood of this tree is very hard, close-grained,
and rather brittle, but is used for an immense variety
of purposes which we have not space to enumerate.
We may remark, however, that a large proportion
of the common stained and japanned furniture used in
modern dwellings is manufactured from Beech. It is
also a favourite wood for fuel, especially in Paris, where
it is consumed to an immense extent under the name of
bois d'Andelle.
The Beech, growing in a favourable situation, will
often attain to dimensions rivalling those of the largest
oaks. There is one of extreme antiquity and vast size
standing on Sunning Hill, in Windsor Forest, which
measures (at six feet from the ground) thirty-six feet
in circumference. In general, a full-grown Beech varies
in height from sixty to one hundred feet, though there
are many in the kingdom that considerably exceed the
latter altitude.
In comparison with the myriad insects that resort to
the oak, those of the Beech are far from numerous, but a
few caterpillars of our finest moths are found to be feeders
on the foliage. The most curious of these is that of the
Lobster Moth, a grotesque, nondescript-looking creature,
very dissimilar to any other caterpillar found in this
country, as it has long spider-like fore-legs, and two
tail-like appendages behind, so that altogether it has no
very distant resemblance to a lobster, whence its name.
The moth, however, into which this odd creature is
eventually transformed has nothing remarkable in its
appearance.
Notwithstanding the paucity of insects actually feed-
ing on this tree, many species take refuge in its umbra-
geous foliage, from which they may be shaken out and
captured ; and the naturalist who spends a day in the
woods where the Beech is abundant will not lack occu-
pation and interest, for there are many plants especially
alluring to insects, that are generally associated with
Beech trees. The fungi also of Beech woods are
numerous, and highly interesting ; among them being
THE HORNBEAM. 19
the Truffle, precious to epicures, and the almost equally
esteemed Morel, besides many species remarkable for
their beauty, one of which, found growing on the trunks
of Beech-trees in the autumn, is like a tuft of white
feathery coral, 1 and possesses the recommendation of
being esculent ; though we would advise our readers
not to experiment on the gastronomic qualities of
fungi without the guidance of a trustworthy book
on the subject, to insure their getting hold of the right
species, as some of the most deadly varieties have a
considerable general resemblance to the most wholesome
kinds.
THE HOENBEAM. 2 (Carpmus Betuhis.)
Wi: place the Hornbeam next to the Beech, as it is
often mistaken for that tree, to which, indeed, it bears so
great a general resemblance as hardly to be distinguishable
at a first glance, except that the leaves are wanting in
that glossy varnish which marks those of the Beech,
and on closer examination will be seen to have a very
different form and texture, being doubly toothed at the
edges, with deeply marked parallel ribs, and rough
surface ; but the young, half-expanded leaves are very
lovely, of a delicate green, and most beautifully folded
or crimped longitudinally. The Hornbeam is very
common in many parts of the country, but especially
abounds in Essex, where it constitutes the principal
1 Hydnum Coralloides.
2 Carpinus Betulus. Nat. order, Corylaccce ; Lin. syst.
Monceda Polyandria. Gen. char. : Barren flower in a cylindrical
catkin, its scales roundish, ciliated at the base ; stamens, 8 to
20. Fertile flower, in a lax catkin, its scales large, foliaceous, 3-
lobed, 1 flowered, involucre ; perianth of 1 leaf, urceolate, 6-
deutate, incorporated with the 2-celled germen, of which one
cell is abortive ; styles 2 ; nut ovate, striated, 1-seeded. Spec,
char. : scales or brautas of the fruit oblong, serrated with two
smaller lateral lobes,
c2
20
OUR WOODLANDS.
tree of Epping and Hainault forests. As we generally
see it, it has the form of a low tree or hedge shrub,
having been reduced to this
state by repeated clipping;
but when allowed its free
growth it attains a good
height, sometimes as much
as forty or fifty feet, with
a trunk two feet in thick-
ness. But though it then
has much of the character of
the Beech, it is deficient in
the picturesque beauty of the
latter, being too "lumpy,"
or as it is termed " cabbage-
headed," in form.
The chief recommendation
of the Hornbeam, at the
present day, is the value of
its timber, which is particu-
larly hard and tough, and excellent for the cogs of mill-
wheels, and is otherwise much used in the manufacture
of agricultural implements. The yokes of oxen from
time immemorial have been made of this wood. But
in the days of geometric gardening, it was a favourite
tree for the close-trimmed hedges, and clipped screens,
which served to partition the formal alleys and flower-
beds, then considered essential to a well-ordered
pleasure-garden ; and it certainly makes admirable
hedges for such purposes, especially as the brown
withered leaves remain till they are supplanted by new
ones, affording an excellent protection to more tender
plants.
The Hornbeam has also been called Horse-beech,
Hard-beam, Yoke Elm, and Witch-Hazel.
The foliage is not much attacked by insects, but the
caterpillars of several moths feed upon it.
IKiT AND C1TK1X OF
THE ASH.
21
THE ASH. (Fraxinus excelsior.}
" Fraxinus in Sylvis pulcherrima," VIRGIL.
WHILE the oak has been justly called the Hercules
of the forest, the Ash has equally merited the title of
the Sylvan Venus, from the
elegance of its form, the
feathery lightness of its foli-
age, and the graceful waving
of its branches qualities
especially to be appreciated
when it is grouped with
other trees of more massive
character, or, as we have fre-
quently seen and admired it,
growing, as it loves to do,
by brook or river side, with
an accompaniment of grey
rocks, whose heavy forms and
sombre hue give full effect
to the airiness and fresh ver- ICD LIi , utD siro OT A1SH
dure of the Ash.
IS'or is it always inferior to the oak and beech in
height and extent of branch. There is a magnificent
Ash-tree in Woburn Park, probably the largest in
England, being 90 feet high, and the trunk of which
measures more than 20 feet round ; the whole tree con-
tains 872 feet of solid timber. There are, however, many
others in the kingdom which approach this in magni-
tude. In Ireland, at Donirey, near Clare, is a hollow
trunk of one which is forty-two feet in circumference.
1 Fraxinus excelsior. Nat. order, Oleacese; Lin. syst.
Diandria, Morwgynia. Gen. char. : Calyx none, or in 4 seg-
ments ; corolla none, or in 4 linear segments ; germen superior,
2-celled ; capsule with 1 or 2 seeds, leaf like ; seeds pendulous,
some flowers without anthers. Spec. char. : Leaflets serrated ;
flowers without calyx or corolla.
22 OUR WOODLANDS.
Next to the oak, the Ash is, doubtless, the most
useful timber tree we possess, being used for innu-
merable purposes where toughness and elasticity are
desirable. To the wheelwright, and agricultural imple-
ment maker, it is invaluable ; while its lightness, com-
bined with strength, renders it generally the best
material for boat-oars, handles of spades and axes, not
forgetting the tourist's Alpen-stock, &c.
Ordinary Ash-timber cannot be considered as orna-
mental or fit for the cabinet-maker's purposes ; but the
roots are often very curiously veined, as are the warty
excrescences on the trunk, and are admirable for fine
cabinet-work.
This tree has been the object of some curious super-
stitions ; one of which at least, absurd as it is, is not yet
quite obsolete : we allude to thr>, reputed virtue of a split
Ash-tree in curing ruptured clr'.dren. The programme
of the ceremony by which this supposed power was
called into play is as follows : The stem, of a young
Ash being cleft down the middle, and kept open by
wedges, the afflicted child, in a state of nudity, was
forced through the opening ; the mother standing on
one side of the tree, and the father on the other. This
uncomfortable transit having been twice performed by
the astonished and shivering infant, both it and the
disrupted tree were respectively swathed up at the same
time ; and if the wound in the latter healed and the
parts coalesced, as was generally the case, a simultaneous
cure was supposed to be effected in the child.
It is but a short time ago, that a poor child, suffering
from the above infirmity, was actually subjected to this
process somewhere in Warwickshire.
In many parts of the country we meet with old Ash-
trees bearing deep scars or seams down their sides ;
memorials of the ill usage they were subjected to in
their youth, from the gross ignorance of the peasantry,
for the benefit of suffering babes.
Equally celebrated and unfounded were the potent
curative virtues of the contrivance known as a Shrew-
THE ASH. 23
Ash. There is a gentle, harmless little creature, with a
long nose, called a " shrew-mouse," which, however, our
sagacious forefathers invested with a terribly malignant
character, insisting it was of so venomous a nature that
whenever it happened to creep over the limb of a cow,
horse, or sheep, that limb would be forthwith seized with
grievous pains and loss of power. To provide against
such an accident, always liable to occur, the good folks
set their fancy to work, and composed an antidote, some-
what on the homoeopathic principle, that "like cures
like." This they managed by boring a deep hole in the
tree with an auger, into which a poor innocent shrew-
mouse was thrust alive, with appropriate incantations.
The entrance being then plugged up, of course the
wretched mouse shortly died, and the tree thence-
forward became a wonderful " Shrew- Ash," and, as
such, was treated with the greatest veneration ; for
when any animal was afflicted by a shrew, as afore-
said, all they had to do was to touch the limb gently
with a twig of such a tree, and straightway the creature
so tormented was cured !
The foliage of the Ash gives food to several fine
insects of the moth tribe ; the finest of which, the rare
and magnificent Clifton-non-pareil, receives its Latin
specific name (Catocala Fraxini) from the Ash: Among
the rest, are the Privet hawk-moth, the Wood-leopard-
moth, the Scarlet tiger-moth, the Red-arches moth, and
the common Footman-moth. The brilliant Blister-fly
(Gantharis vesicatoria), also, is very fond of the leaves,
but is only very sparingly met with in this country;
but on the Continent is so abundant as frequently to
strip the trees of their leaves, rendering, moreover,
their vicinity very disagreeable, and even dangerous,
from the nauseous, pungent odour, and the floating
particles which they give off and which, when in-
haled, produce very deleterious effects.
The inner bark of the Ash is frequently minde by
a small beetle, in a manner similar to that of the Elm,
which will be presently described.
OUR WOODLANDS.
The Asli may be readily recognised in spring by the
singular blackness of its buds.
THE ELM. 1 (Ulmus campestris.)
THIS stately tree, notwithstanding its thoroughly
English character, is one of those whose claim to be
ranked as indigenous has been dis-
puted by botanists, who allege that
it was introduced here either by
the Eomans or the Crusaders. Be
this as it may, the Elm has become
perfectly naturalized in this coun-
try, and enjoys a much better right
to be called English than all the
good families who " came in with
the Conquest." No tree, in fact,
identifies itself more completely
with our most characteristic Eng-
lish scenery, especially in conjunc-
tion with human habitations, from
which it is seldom seen far distant. In painting a scene
of English country life, is it not the Elm that first
suggests itself as the appropriate tree to shade the village
green, and to give a good framework to the homestead?
A finely grown Elm is among the handsomest of trees ;
lofty, yet graceful, it is an especial favourite with artists,
who delight in its well-balanced contour, and the fine
effects of light and shade offered by its rich foliage,
dark green in summer, and in autumn taking a bright
1 Ulmus Campestris. Nat. order, Ulmacece ; Lin. syst. Pen
tandria Diyynia. Gen. char. : Calyx, 4 or 5-cleft, inferior, per-
sistent ; corolla, none ; capsule, membranous, compressed,
nearly flat, with 1 seed. Spec. char. : Leaves rhomboid, ovate,
doubly serrated, rough above, downy beneath ; flowers nearly
sessile ; fruit oblong, deeply cloven, naked.
COMMON ILX.
THE ELM. 25
yellow hue that harmonizes beautifully with the deeper
autumnal tints of other trees, such as the beech and oak.
The Elm frequently towers to a great height, sometimes
exceeding 100 feet, but more frequently varying from
seventy to ninety feet, with a trunk of four or five feet
in diameter.
There are in the country many very old and large
Elms, some with historical associations rivalling in anti-
quity those of the famous old oaks, as they do also in
the vastness of their hollow trunks.
"We recollect once visiting an enormous specimen at
Crawley, near Horsham- in Sussex. The girth of the
trunk, measured near the ground, was sixty-one feet,
and round the inside of the cavity (for it was hollow)
was thirty-five feet. The floor is paved with bricks,
and the entrance to the hollow is by a regular door,
which is generally locked, and the key is kept by the
lord of the manor ; but, on particular occasions, the
neighbours meet and banquet in the cavity, which will
accommodate more than a dozen persons.
The timber of the Elm is well known as a valuable
material for many purposes of country carpentry, such as
cart-building, &c. and is especially employed in situations
where its durability, under alternations of wet and dry,
renders it most serviceable, as in water-mill wheels, con-
duit pipes, pumps, &c. ; and in naval architecture it is
the chief timber used for laying the keels of large ships,
and for planking below the water-line.
Evelyn informs us that the leaves were formerly
gathered in sacks in Hertfordshire as fodder for swine
and cattle, adding, that " they will eat them before oats,
and thrive exceedingly well upon them." Feeders of
cattle, living where the Elm is plentiful, and other food
scarce, might occasionally profit by this knowledge.
The Elm has many insect enemies, of which the most
destructive, and at the same time one of the most dimi-
nutive, is the little bark-boring beetle without an English
name, but scientifically called Scolytus destructor. We
sometimes see a prostrate Elm trunk by the roadside,
26 OURi WOODLANDS.
with the bark in an unhealthy-looking, semi-decayed
state. If we "break off a piece of this bark wo shall
probably find the inner surface scored with numerous
channels, which emanate from each side of a central
line, like the map of a number of rivers rising from a
long mountain ridge. These grooves are the work of
the little Scolytus, whose agency brought down the
giant tree now at our feet.
Sometimes these channels, instead of being parallel,
diverge irregularly from a common centre, as in tho
adjoining figure, which is a reduced copy of a piece of
mined bark we found not long since. In either cast-,
however, the process by Avhich all this came about is
much the same, and a curious piece of insect engineering
it is.
UK OF THE ELM MINED BY THE SCOLYTUS.
In the month of July, the female Scolytus (a small
beetle about a quarter of an inch long) eats or bores
her way through the bark till she comes to the soft wood
within : here she turns her course at right angles, and
excavates a gallery through the inner bark in an upward
direction, and about two inches in length, depositing as
she proceeds a line of eggs on each side of this gallery,
This done, and the devoted mother having thus provided
for the welfare of her offspring, her part in life- is
finished; she never emerges from the cell she hns
formed with so much labour, and we may see her (lend
THE ELM. 27
body at the end farthest from where she entered, but
she leaves behind those who will amply fill her place.
In about two months the eggs are hatched, and each
tiny grub begins to feed upon the inner bark, eating
away a passage nearly at right angles to the large channel
it was hatched in, and, of course, enlarging the tunnel
with its own growth, till at last it has come to maturity,
and, staying its progress, it turns first to a chrysalis,
then to a beetle, and, gnawing a hole outwards into the
air, emerges to lay the foundation of another colony of
miners ; and so on, till the unfortunate tree, from the
gradually extended injury to its vital inner bark, can
no longer maintain the circulation of the sap, which
goes on through this part, and so lapses into ill-health
and decay. Whole avenues of Elms have thus perished
in some places.
The comparatively gigantic Goat Moth is, in the
caterpillar state, another dangerous and sometimes fatal
enemy to the Elm, not confining itself to the bark,
but by boring long galleries, large enough to admit the
finger, through the solid heart-wood, it seriously depre-
ciates the value of the otherwise sound timber, destroying
the integrity of its substance, even if its injuries do not
lead to the complete decay and fall of the tree, as some-
times is the case.
There is an eccentric little leaping beetle 1 (called,
from that habit, the Elm-flea) sometimes found in troops
among the foliage, which it devours, without, however,
doing much real damage to the tree. When magnified,
it is found to be a splendid little creature, in its glitter-
ing armour of green and gold, with the thighs of its
hinder legs surprisingly developed ; and good use it
makes of its extra muscles : a branch may be one mo-
ment covered with these pigmy hoppers ; we make a
movement to get out our magnifying glass, and, presto,
all have vanished ; the branch is cleared in a twinkling.
The oddly-shaped Comma Butterfly, and the Elm But-
1 Haltica.
28 OUR WOODLANDS.
terfly or Large Tortoise-shell, both feed on Elm-leaves ;
and the pretty Gold-tail Moth sometimes overruns the
tree in the caterpillar state, half stripping it of its
foliage.
THE WYCH ELM, OE SCOTCH ELM *
( Ulmus montana)
Is principally distinguished from the common English
Elm by the character of its growth, which is less upright
and more loose and spreading
than that of the latter ; its
central trunk being less tall
and continuous, and dividing
at no great distance from the
ground into long and rather
drooping branches, forming
a wide-spreading tree. As
another mark of distinction,
we may observe that the
leaves are larger and broader
shaped than those of the
common Elm.
The "Wych Elm is consi-
dered to be the real indige-
nous Elm of the country, and
in Scotland is very frequent in a truly wild state, often
forming the chief ornament of Scottish scenery. Some
varieties have the branches quite pendulous, like the
1 Ulmus montana. Nat. order, Ulmacece. Lin. syst. : Pentandria
D'ujynia. Gen. char. : see page 24. Spec. char. : Leaves obovate,
pointed, doubly and coarsely serrated, nearly equal at the base,
very rough above, downy beneath ; flowers nearly sessile ; fruit
obovate, rather rhomboidal, slightly cloven, naked; branches
drooping, smooth.
LEAF OT WYCH ELM.
THE B1KCH. 2U
weeping willow, thus producing a most graceful effect.
The trunk is often covered with huge, knotty excres-
cences, which add greatly to the picturesque character
of the tree, and afford a highly-prized material for the
cabinet-maker, being curiously marbled and veined.
These are cut into very thin veneers, and applied to
choice tables, cabinets, &c. The ordinary timber fur-
nished by this tree is of excellent quality for many
purposes, having more toughness longitudinally than
the common Elm timber, so that it may sometimes be
used as a substitute for the Ash.
This Elm frequently attains an immense size : there
is one called the "Trysting Tree," near Roxburgh, in
Teviotdale, whose girth, measured at four feet from the
ground, is 30 feet. Another, felled some time since in
Staffordshire, was 120 feet high, and the trunk 17 feet
in diameter at the ground. It was probably from the
mere coincidence between the names "wych" and
" witch," that certain magical properties were attri-
buted to the Wych Elm or Wych Hazel, as it is
sometimes called. " In some of the midland counties,
even to the present day, a little cavity is made in the
churn, to receive a small portion of ' "VVych-hazel/
without which the dairymaids imagine that they would
not be able to get the butter to come." l
THE BIRCH. 2 (Setula alba.)
THOSE who are familiar with our mountain scenery will
acknowledge how much of its romantic beauty is derived
1 Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum.
- Bttula alba. Nat. order, Bttulactce ; Lin. syst. : Moncecia
Tetrandria. Gen. char. : Barren flower in a cylindrical catkin,
its scales 3-flowered ; perianth 0; stamens, 10-12; fertile flower,
scale of the catkin imperfectly 3-lobed, 3-flowered ; perianth ;
styles 2 ; germens compressed, 2-celled, one abortive ; nuts
compressed, with a membranaceous margin, 1-seeded. Spec,
char. : Leaves ovato-deltoid, acute, doubly serrated glabrous.
30 OUB WOODLANDS.
from this most graceful, airy tree, so appropriately styled
by Coleridge " the Lady of the Woods." In every situa-
tion its presence is felt as adding a charm to the scene,
whether waving on the brow of the cliif, with its light
transparent form seen quivering against the sky, or down
on the shore of the broad loch, to which it forms a most
harmonious foreground.
LEAF AND CATUX OF BIRCH.
The Birch may be readily distinguished from other
trees, at first sight, by the peculiar silvery whiteness of
its bark, its slender form, and the comparative smallness
of its leaves, which are shaped as in the accompanying
figure. There are two principal varieties of this species,
the erect, and the "Weeping Birch, 1 the latter having by
far the more characteristic elegance of the two, the lesser
branches being more slender and drooping, and the
leaves smaller, while the tree itself attains a much larger
size than the other kind. The weeping variety is the
one that prevails in the mountain districts of Scotland
and Wales. It may be remarked that in ascending our
loftiest mountains the Birch is the last tree that we
miss on our upward path, for it continues with us to
heights far above the level at which even the Scotch fir
disappears.
1 Betula laba, r. pendula.
THE BIECH. 31
In enumerating the uses of the Birch, we will discard
from the list the imaginary virtues so long ascribed
to it as an occasional stimulant and alterative in the
scholastic training of British youth; its ancient reputation
having lately fallen away "root and branch," so that
it is no longer, as styled by Phillips^ the
" Afflictive birch,
Cursed by unlettered idle youth, "
who, from the earliest ages, had good cause to regard it
Avith terror. In old Gerarde's time this botanical
remedy for juvenile frailty was in full vogue, as appears
from his observations, that "schoolmasters and parents
do terrific their children with rods made of Birch."
Now, however, gentler means are found to work the
desired amelioration far more surely and satisfactorily to
both doctor and patient.
In the colder regions of the Continent, the wood and
bark of the Birch are more universally made use of than
is the case in Britain. The young spray, besides its
uses for making brooms, &c., affords a capital fuel for
the iron furnaces. The large old wood is manufactured
into furniture and agricultural implements. The outer
bark, which is almost imperishable, serves a variety of
purposes ; houses are roofed with it instead of tiles ; and
in Lapland, where the Birch is almost the sole tree, its
utility is immense ; of it the natives make baskets, mats,
cordage, waterproof boots and shoes, and by taking a
broad sheet of it, and cutting a hole in the middle for
the head, a respectable "mackintosh" is produced. Strips
of the bark twisted together form excellent torches, the
inflammability being due to the presence of a quantity
of oil, which when distilled is employed in the prepara-
tion of Russia leather, and gives to it its peculiar odour.
For many of these purposes it is also used in the High-
lands of Scotland, but its chief appliances in this country
are for making packing-crates, and hoops for herring-
barrels ; and also as fire- wood. Birch charcoal is much
32 OUlt WOODLANDS.
used iii manufacturing gunpowder, and well prepared
sticks of it form excellent crayons for drawing.
The naturalist finds in Birch-woods plenty of interest-
ing subjects, some of which are peculiar to such localities.
That pretty bird of the finch tribe called the Siskin, 1
may here be seen busy with the seeds, which are its
favourite food. Then there is a large number of insects,
including some of those most prized by the collector,
that feed on the leaves, either partially or exclusively.
The rare and magnificent Camberwell Beauty is one of
the former division, and the very pretty, though not
brilliant, Brown-hair-streak, another Butterfly, is only
met with in the neighbourhood of Birch-trees. We shall
mention a few only of the Moths found, in more or less
abundance, in Birch- woods. The Lime Hawk Moth,
the Wood Leopard Moth, the Swallow Prominent Moth,
Lunar Marbled-brown Moth, Kentish Glory Moth, Black-
arches Moth, Red-arches Moth, Blossom-underwingMoth,
Light-orange-underwing Moth, Peppered Moth, Oak
Beauty Moth, &c.
On very old trees we have found occasionally a
massive fungus as large as a child's head, called the
Birch Boletus, wliich when cut asunder is found to
be composed of a pure white substance of corky tex-
ture ; and we have used this for various purposes
instead of cork, such as carving small models, which
have a beautiful appearance. It also makes an excellent
material for lining entomological boxes as a substitute
for cork. That most poisonous of the mushroom genus,
the Fly Agaric (Agaricus muscanus), though not growing
on the tree, yet, being generally found in Birch-woods,
should be noticed here. It is a very handsome fungus,
having a bright red upper surface studded with brown
warts. Its effects when taken in small quantities are
highly narcotic, producing intoxication and delirium,
and, if the dose be large, terminating in death.
1 Fringilla spinus.
SCOTCH PINE OR FIR. 33
THE DAYARF BIRCH. 1 (Betula ndna.)
Ix the Highlands of Scotland, especially in wet, boggy
places, this elegant little shrub is found, forming a lowly
bush seldom more than two or three feet
in height. Though rather looked on as
a botanical curiosity in Britain, it is a
plant of immense importance to the in-
habitants of barren Lapland, furnishing
them with their chief fuel and bedding,
while the seeds nourish the Ptarmigan,
which in its turn becomes a most valu-
able article of food to the natives.
On the Dwarf Birch grows the Bold its
fomentarius, from which the amadou
or moxa is prepared, and which is held
by the Laplanders to be an efficacious
remedy in many painful diseases.
This species is often cultivated as an
ornamental shrub in collections.
THE SCOTCH PINE OR FIR 2 (Pinus sylv&lris.)
Or all the numerous species of Pine and Fir met with
in the parks and plantations of this country, only one,
the Scotch Pine, is really indigenous to Britain, and
1 Bctula nuna. Gen. cliar.: see page, 29. Spec. char. : Leaves
orbicular, crenate.
* Pinus sylvestris. Nat. order, Pinacece ; Lin. syst. : Monascia
Monadclphia. Gen. char. : Male anthers, 2-celled ; female
scales in a conical cone, bracteate at base, digynous ; pericarps
attached to the inside of scale, more or less winged, deciduous ;
stigmas bind, or trifid, cotyledons, 4-8. Spec. char. : Leaves in
pairs, rigid ; cones couico-ovate, acute, as long as the leaves,
generally in pairs.
D
34
OUR WOODLANDS.
that only in the northern parts of Scotland, where
it becomes one of the most striking objects in the
grand scenery there displayed ; and those only who have
seen it in its natural situation can
appreciate its wild and picturesque
beauty, in perfect harmony with
the sublime features that surround
it. It seems indeed hardly the same
tree, amidst the refinement and
smoothness of a southern pleasure-
ground. That eminent critic and
admirer of trees, Sir T. D. Lauder,
a native of Scotland, thus speaks in
rapturous enthusiasm of his national
tree : " When its foot is amongst
its own Highland heather, and when
it stands freely on its native knoll of
dry gravel, or thinly covered rock,
over which its roots wander far in
the wildest reticulation, while its
tall, furrowed, often gracefully
sweeping red and grey trunk, of
enormous circumference, raises aloft
its high umbrageous canopy, then would the greatest
sceptic on this point (its picturesqueness) be compelled
to prostrate his mind before it with a veneration which
perhaps was never before excited by any other tree."
The name of "Fir," though in very general use, is
erroneously applied to this tree, which really belongs
to the division called Pines, broadly distinguished
from the Firs by the different forms of the adult trees,
spreading and flat-headed in the former, and regularly
conical or steeple-shaped in the latter, of which the
Spruce Fir is a familiar example.
The Scotch Pine is considered to be the most valu-
able timber-tree of its tribe in Europe, producing the
best of the material called deal, Avhich is \;sed to such
an immense extent in civil and naval architecture ; the
greater proportion of this kind of wood is, however,
COXES OF SCOTCH TINE.
SCOTCH PINE OB FIE. 35
imported from the shores of the Baltic, especially
Norway, as our own forests are quite inadequate to
supply the enormous demand. Any detail of the mani-
fold but well-known uses to which deal is put would be
superfluous here.
We have often witnessed most beautiful pictorial
effects in a group of Scotch Pines under the influence
of the setting sun, whose warm rays, where they strike
upon the red-barked stems and branches, light them up
into bars of glowing crimson, magically contrasted Avith
the deep gloom of the dark blue-green foliage. But
however striking the character of the Pine, regarded
under favourable circurn stances, may be, it is pretty
certain that an ordinary close-set Pine plantation, with
the monotony of its endless ranges of straight poles,
forms a scene far from cheerful or picturesque : all
verdure is banished from the ground beneath ; for the
dense shade, together with the deleterious nature of the
fallen leaves, is destructive to almost all other vegeta-
tion, and the Pines are left sole tenants of the soiL
The insects which attack and injure Pine and Fir trees
in general, are far more numerous than would have been
anticipated from the resinous nature of all the parts of
these trees ; products of similar character being used to
a large extent artificially for driving away insects ; but
it seems that the constitutions of these little marauders
are altered to fit them to the most unlikely food, so that
some species depend for life upon what would be speedy
death to others. The Giant Sirex 1 is one of these
enemies that we have occasionally met with in the
neighbourhood of Fir plantations, a very formidable
looking insect, in size and colour much like the venomous
Hornet, but harmless, except to the timber it attacks.
This it does by boring into the solid wood, when in the
grub state, and feeding there till it changes to a pupa,
and then emerges a perfect insect. On one occasion
much astonishment and alarm was occasioned to a nurse
and her juvenile charges by the unaccountable appear-
3 Syrex gigas.
D2
36 out WOODLANDS.
-ince of several great Sirexes coming suddenly out of the
iloor of the nursery, and buzzing terrifically about among
the youthful company, who, unblest by science, knew
not that their visitors were stingless. The explanation
of this phenomenon is, that the deal flooring was newly
laid down, and the boards must have contained the
pupae of the Sirex, which, coming to maturity in that
situation, made their appearance as related.
If our readers should chance to find on a Fir-tree a
large caterpillar, of bright green colour, with brown
stripe down the back, terminating in a black, horny
tail, let them carefully carry it home, taking a branch
of Fir for it to feed on, and give it a box with some
loose earth at the bottom. If all goes well with it, it
Avill change first into a brown chrysalis, then into a
large and pretty moth the Pine-hawk Moth l which
the captor may either keep as a rarity, or give to
his entomological friend (if he has one), by whom it
will be duly prized.
Multitudes of small insects of different orders frequent
the Pine and Fir ; some drilling the substance of the
wood in all directions, and reducing the interior to dust ;
some nibbling the leaves, till the trees become bare;
some channelling beneath the bark, like the Scolytus of
the Elm; and others forming resinous galls at the end
of the young shoots, in which the grubs reside.
The fungi found in Pine-woods are extremely nu-
merous, and frequently distinguished by their great
beauty of form or colour, many of them being peculiar
to Pine-trees, either growing attached to some part of
the tree, or among the dead leaves on the ground, and
others even on the fallen cones. It will thus be seen
that, notwithstanding the unpromising aspect of a Pine-
wood, it is not by any means barren of interest to the
naturalist.
1 Sphinx Piuastri.
THE LARCH.
37
THE LARCH. 1 (Ldrix Europva.)
THIS lofty, pyramidal tree
may be distinguished from
the spruce and other firs, and
the pine all Avhich are of an
evergreen nature by losing
its summer foliage, and re-
maining bare through the
winter, retaining only the
cones, which give a curious
spotted appearance to the
spray, when seen at a little
distance, against the sky. A
vast extent of land, especially in the northern parts of
the kingdom, is now devoted to the cultivation of the
Larch, as its excellent timber qualities, in some respects
excelling those of the Scotch pine, are gaining due
appreciation from landowners. As an ornamental tree,
the Larch has little to recommend it, except that in
spring a tree planted in a free space, so as to bear
branches that sweep the ground, becomes an elegant
object for the time, clothed in the delicate pea-green of
its young leaves, and tasselled over with the beautiful
pink flower-spikes. This beauty, however, soon gives
place to the dinginess and poverty that characterise
the tree during the rest of the year.
There are several other cone-bearing trees, more or
less abundantly cultivated in plantations and mixed
woods, but whose history we have not space to enter
into. The principal of these are, the common or Xor-
1 Larix Europcea. Nat. order, Plnacece ; Lin. syst. : Mona-cia
Monadelphia. Gen. char. : Male anthers 2-celled ; female, scales
imbricated in a rovmd cone, braeteate at base, digynous ; peri-
carps attached to inside of scale, winged, deciduous ; stigma
hemispherical, cupped, glandular; cotyledons 5-9. Spec. char. :
Leaves fascicled, deciduous ; cones ovate-oblong ; edges of scales
reflexed, lacerated, Bractes panduriform.
38
OUR WOODLANDS.
way Spruce Fir (Abies excelsa), a tall, evergreen, spire-
shaped tree ; the Silver Fir (Picea pectinata), similar in
growth to the last, but somewhat less taper in form,
and whose dark green leaves are marked on the under
surface with two silvery white lines ; the Pinaster
(Pimm Pinaster), rather resembling the Scotch pine, but
which may be known by its large clustered masses of
foliage at the ends of the branches, giving the tree a
peculiar tufted appearance.
THE FIELD MAPLE. 1 (Acer campestre.)
THOUGH the Maple, from its valuable qualities as a
hedge-bush, is generally confined to that position, we
must class it among forest-trees, as it attains dimensions
entitling it to that rank, when exempted from the
pruning-hook and shears, and allowed to assume its
natural form, which is that of a handsome and pic-
turesque little tree, between twenty and thirty feet
high when full grown. The
leaves are of an elegant
palmate shape, and give a
peculiar crispness to the
general aspect of the foli-
age ; and in autumn they
take varied tints of yellow
and orange, which .have a
rich effect as forming part
of the landscape.
The bark is remarkably
corky, and deeply furrowed,
this peculiarity being
1 Acer campestre. Nat. order, Acerinece; Lin. syst.: Octandria
Monogynia. Gen. char. : Calyx 5-cleft, inferior ; petals 5 ; ger-
men 2-lobed ; capsules 2, united at the base, each with a long
winged membrane. Spec. char. : Leaves mostly 5-lobed; lobes
obtuse, notched, flowers in erect, corymbus-like racemes,
THE FIELD MAPLE. 39
particularly noticeable in the young branches, and suf-
ficing to distinguish the Maple from all other British
trees.
This is one of an extensive genus, all the species of
which abound in a saccharine juice ; and from several
of these sugar has been extracted on a large scale, espe-
cially from the Sugar-maples of America.
In this country, the wood is the sole valuable product
of the Maple, it being close-grained, often very beauti-
fully marked, and susceptible of a high polish qualities
which have caused it to be much used in cabinet-work
and for turnery ; but the kind most highly prized is
that obtained from the knotty excrescences of the stem
and roots, which are often most curiously veined and
spotted, and, when highly polished, present a very rich
appearance.
One of the hobbies in which the ancient luxurious
Romans indulged (as the old-china mania was not
then invented) was the acquisition, at enormous prices,
of tables made from very rare and curious specimens of
Maple-wood. Their wives also happened to have another
costly taste, for dresses, jewellery, and the like vanities,
which their lords, oblivious of their own rather expensive
little fancies, considered were needless extravagances,
and sometimes ventured to hint as much ; when .the
ladies, roused by this injustice, would in their turn
point to the sumptuous Maple-table, with an allusion
to its ruinous price ; and this was called "turn ing the.
tables " on their husbands ; hence the phrase used to
this day for a similar kind of retort.
40
OUB WOODLANDS.
LE4T, TLOWXIS, AND SEEDS OF SYC.IMOKE.
THE SYCAMOEE.1 (Acer Pseudo-pldtanus.)
WITH regard to the identity of
this tree, a double confusion
exists in the non-botanical
mind. In the first place, as it
is called in Scotland the Plane-
tree, and it is very frequently
confounded with the Oriental
and Western Planes trees of
very different character to the
Sycamore, but having leaves of
rather similar shape.
Then, again, it is generally
supposed to be the Sycamore
mentioned in Scripture, as the
tree on which Zacchams climbed
to see Christ as he passed on his
way to Jerusalem ; but the Sycamore of the Bible was
really a kind of fig-tree, the Ficus Sycomorus of botanists ;
while the present tree is a species of Maple.
The Sycamore, when fully grown, forms a large,
massive tree, with a contour often much resembling
that of the oak ; though the broadness of the individual
leaves gives a different and rather heavier character to
the mass of its foliage, which, when fully developed,
affords a more dense, impenetrable shade than almost
any other tree ; 011 which account we often see it planted
close to the sunny side of the dairy, to the coolness of
which its presence greatly contributes.
In spring, the half-expanded young leaves are ex-
tremely beautiful objects, showing, Avhen held up to the
light, the most delicate transparent tints of red, amber,
and olive; but as the season advances, the leaves become
opaque, and are usually disfigured by the attacks of
1 Acer Pseudo-platanus. Nat. order, Aceracece ; Lin. syst. :
Oc'andrla Moiioyynia. Gen. char. : see page 33. Spec. char. :
Leaves 5-lobecl, unequally serrated ; vacemes pendulous.
THE SYCAMOKE. 41
insects, some of which perforate and render them ragged ;
while others (Aphides) exude from their bodies a clammy,
sweet fluid, known as " honey-dew," which, covering the
surface of the leaves, causes them to retain the dust that
alights upon them, so that towards the end of summer
the foliage presents a peculiarly dirty, unwholesome
appearance, more especially observable in the neigh-
bourhood of large towns, where smoke and its deposits
are added to the dust of the road. The autumnal tints
are nevertheless often very rich and harmonious, and
are assumed earlier than those of many of its sylvan
brethren. Cowper well describes the ever-varving hues
of
'' The Sycamore, capricious in attire,
Now green, now tawny, and ere autumn yet
Has changed the woods, in scarlet honours bright."
The wood of the Sycamore is of a yellowish colour
in mature trees ; compact and firm in texture, without
being very hard ; and being easily worked, and suscep-
tible of a high polish, it is in great request among
turners, cabinet-makers, and musical instrument makers,
with whom it is a favourite material for violins. As
a fuel it is esteemed the best of all woods, both for the
amount of heat it gives out, and the time it lasts while
burning.
The sap, like that of all the maple tribe, holds iu
solution a considerable quantity of sugar, which has
been separated from it, on a small scale, in Scotland,
where the tree abounds ; but the manufacture could
not be profitably carried on as a commercial operation.
The Scotch children amuse themselves by making in-
cisions in the bark, and sucking the sweet sap that
flows from the wound very freely ; and from this
liquor, by fermentation, a wine of tolerable quality
may be made.
As an instance of the really magnificent dimensions
an old Sycamore can attain to, we may iiiontion one at
Kew, a century old, which is seventy-four feet in
42
OUR WOODLANDS.
height, and has a trunk five and a half feet thick ; but
in the north there are some specimens, the trunks of
which much exceed the one at Kew.
THE LIME-TKEE, OR LINDEN. 1
(Tilia Europcea.}
THIS is better known as an inhabitant and ornament
of our towns than as a wild woodland tree ; and, in
fact, the large-leaved kind, with which we are all
familiar, is so seldom found
growing in a state of nature,
that is, in localities where it
was not probably planted by
. * the agency of man, that it is
v generally considered by bo-
*" i i p
tanists to have been a foreign
variety introduced to this coun-
try from the Continent at a
very distant period, and long
since become naturalized here.
There is, however, a Lime-tree
which we frequently meet with
in woods far from human habi-
tations, and, as it would seem, in a truly wild state,
which hardly differs from the common domesticated
form, except in its smaller and less transparent leaves,
1 Tilia Europcea. Nat. order, Tiliacece ; Lin. syst. : Polyandria
Monogynia. Gen. char. : Calyx 5-parted, petals 5, capsule coria-
ceous, globose, 5-celled, 4-valved, opening at base, 1-seeded.
Spec. char. : Nectarines wanting, leaves smooth, except a woolly
tuft at the origin of the veins beneath, cordate, acuminate and
serrated, twice the length of the footstalks ; cymes many-
flowered, the capsule coriaceous and downy.
OWKE OF LIME-T
THE LIME-TREE, OR LINDEN. 43
and is known as the Small-leaved Lime-tree. In Essex
and Sussex this kind is particularly abundant.
If the regularity of form which distinguishes the
Lime prevents its ranking as one of our most pic-
turesque trees, we must certainly regard it as one of
the pleasantest and most cheerful, especially in early
summer, when the eye is charmed by the fresh verdure
of its foliage, the sense of smell delighted by the rich
fragrance of its blossoms, while the ear is engaged by
the music of the honey-bee and other insects, which in
thousands flock to its honeyed stores.
Those who only know the Lime as an avenue-tree,
often cropped and stunted, can form but little idea
of the luxuriance of its growth, and the enormous
dimensions it is capable of attaining when favoured by
soil and situation. At Moor Park, in Hertfordshire,
are some magnificent specimens, one of which is 100
feet high, with a head 122 feet in diameter, and a
trunk 23 feet in circumference ; . but the most remark-
able Lime-tree in this country is probably that at
Knowle, in Kent, which, in extent of branchy canopy,
and singularity of growth, rivals the famous Indian
Banyan. The lower branches of this tree, after extend-
ing on every side to a great length, have drooped by their
own weight till their extremities rested on the earth, in
which they took root, and sent up a circle of young
trees, which thus surrounded the parent stem. After
a time, the outer branches of these latter, stretching
out till they reached the ground, rooted there in their
turn, and threw up a second circle of trees ; so that
at present this vast, vegetable curiosity, all emanating
from a single stem, covers about a quarter of an acre
of ground with its branches.
Besides the ornamental qualities possessed by the
Lime, it is not without its direct service to man. The
wood, which is yellowish-white in colour, soft, smooth-
grained, and light, is put to a variety of useful purposes
by cabinet-makers, turners, toy-makers, and carvers.
The sounding-boards of pianofortes are made of it, as
44 OUR WOODLANDS.
it does not warp under changes of atmosphere, a quality
which likewise recommends it for carriage-paneling,
lint the most elegant application of this wood is for
fine carving, in the practice of which art it is justly
preferred to every other wood :
" Smooth Linden best obeys
The carver's chisel ; best his curious work
Displays in nicest touches."
The exquisite productions of Grinling Gibbons, exe-
cuted in this material some two hundred years ago,
may be seen in St. Paul's Cathedral, at Windsor Castle,
Chatsworth, and other places, still looking sharp,
delicate, and beautiful as when they came from the
artist's chisel.
That well-known commodity called " bast-matting,"
and so useful to gardeners for protecting their plants,
and to upholsterers for packing large goods, is a pro-
duct of the Lime-tree, being prepared from the inner
bark by macerating it in water till it separates into
thin layers, strips of which are afterwards woven toge-
ther into the form in which we see it.
The honey which bees obtain from Lime-blossoms is
esteemed beyond every other kind, being very delicious
and high-flavoured ; but of course it can only be had
pure in districts covered with forests of this tree, as
in the case at Kauno, in Lithuania, where the honey
is gathered immediately after the Lime has finished
"blossoming, and its sale, at three or four times the
price of common honey, is the chief dependence of
the inhabitants.
In some places, an infusion, or tea, made of Lime-
blossoms, is held in great repute as a remedy for coughs,
hoarseness, &c. ; and, from what we know of its quali-
ties, it may probably be very efficacious in mild cases :
at least the potion will be harmless and not unpleasant.
Gilbert White informs us that he made some Lime-
blossom tea, " and found it a very soft, well-flavoured,
THE WALNUT. 43
pleasant saccharine julep, in taste much resembling the
juice of liquorice."
Amongst the numerous caterpillars who make the
foliage of the Lime their food, we can only enumerate
a few of the principal : the Lime-hawk Moth (a beau-
tiful insect in its perfect state, with wings of very
singular shape, and exquisitely shaded with tints of
olive-green, grey, and brown), the Buff-tip, Lobster
Moth, Glory of Kent, Dagger Moth, Orange Moth,
Brindled Beauty, Mer veil- du -jour, Canary-shouldered
Thorn Moth, &c.
THE WALNUT. 1 (Juylans regia.}
THE Walnut, it may be said, belongs more properly to
the orchard department than to that of forest-trees ;
but the country rambler so frequently meets with it in
a half-wild looking state, by the roadside or in the
park, grouping most picturesquely with other trees and
with rustic architecture, and its importance as a timber
and fruit-tree is so great, that we must introduce it as
a member of our Sylva, along with the Horse-chestnut
and Spanish chestnut, which have similar claims to
that title.
The most valuable product of the Walnut is the
fruit, 2 which is so well known, together with the
1 Juglans rcyia. Nat. order, Juylandacece ; Lin. syst. Moncecia
Pobjandria. Gen. char. : Male, an imbricated catkin; calyx, a
scale; corolla, 6-pavted; filaments, 4-18. Female, calyx, 4-cleft;
superior corolla, 4-cleft ; styles 2 ; drupe coriaceous, with a fur-
rowed nut. Spec. char. : Leaflets about nine, oval, smooth, sub-
serrated, nearly equal ; fruit globose.
2 The Walnut must have been highly esteemed by the
ancients, and considered by them as food fit for the gods, as its
Latin name Juglans is well known to be contracted from the
words Jovis. glans, i. e. the acorn of Jove.
46 OUR WOODLANDS.
uses to which it is put, both in its green and mature
state, that it would be superfluous to describe it here : we
may, however, just mention, that there is one variety
AND rRUIT OF WALNUT.
not often seen, which produces nuts nearly as large as
a turkey's egg, but, notwithstanding their magnificent
appearance, these are of inferior quality to some of the
smaller sorts.
The timber of the "Walnut, also, is in high estimation
for cabinet-work, although not now used to the same
extent as formerly, before the introduction of mahogany
and other beautiful foreign woods ; but some of the
fine old Walnut furniture will bear comparison on all
points with the most elegant productions of the present
day.
Another most important use of "Walnut-wood is for
the manufacture of gun-stocks, for which its great
strength and lightness especially qualify it. 1 The
1 About the year 1806, some twelve thousand Walnut-trees
were annually required in France for the manufacture of
muskets.
THE EATABLE OR SPANISH CHESTNUT. 47
number of Walnut-trees grown in this country lias,
however, very greatly diminished of late years, as it
has been found that a supply equal to the demands of
the country can easily be obtained from the coasts of
the Black Sea, and from America. 1
The Walnut sometimes attains to grand dimensions,
one at Cothelstone, in Devonshire, being sixty-four
feet high, with a trunk six and a half feet in diameter ;
and there are many very fine specimens in the neigh-
bourhood of London.
The bark of this tree is grey and smooth on the
upper branches, deeply furrowed on the trunk, and the
leaves are light and elegant both in form and colour.
These have the defect of dropping off with the first
frosts ; but the tree, even in its denuded state, main-
tains its picturesque character, owing to the fine form
and play of its bold branches.
From the austere nature of the juices in the leaves
and other parts of the Walnut, it is attacked by very
few insects. Among the moths, two species are re-
corded by Mr. Selby, that known as the Peppered
Moth, and another small Geometra.
THE EATABLE OR SPANISH CHESTNUT. 2
(Castdnea vesca.}
HAD we before us at once an Oak and a Chestnut,
each in their maturity and perfection and were it pos-
1 The timber imported from America is that of the American
walnut (Juylans niyra), a distinct species, but possessing similar
qualities.
2 Costarica vesca. Nat. order, Corylacece : Lin. syst. : Moncecia
Polyandria. Geii. char. : Barren flower in a very long cylindrical
catkin; perianth, single, of 1-leaf, 6-cleft; stamen, 5-20. Fer-
tile, flower 3, within a 4-lobed, thickly muricated involucrum ;
48 OUR WOODLANDS.
table to divest our minds of the heart-stirring associations
to the former malcing outward beauty and
magnificence the sole points of rivalry,
we should long hesitate in giving the
palm of superiority to cither, as they
both possess to an eminent degree
picturesque qualities of their own,
that commend them to our fullest
admiration.
In colossal grandeur the Chestnut
is scarcely inferior to the oak, ex-
celling the latter in the rich character
of its foliage, composed of large hand-
some leaves of glossy green ; and
often, also, in. the line forms presented
by the trunk, the bark of which in old
trees is full of deep rugged clefts. The
ramification, too, when bared by winter
of its verdure, is seen to have all the
boldness and easy flow so remarkable
in that of the oak.
When, however, we quit the merely
artistic view we have been taking, and consider the abso-
lute value of the oak commercially and historically,
there is no question of its claim to sovereignty, since
the Chestnut as a timber-tree is comparatively worthless.
The age which gives heartiness and strength to the oak,
brings shakiness and decay to the chestnut. Among the
most remarkable chestnuts of this country is that at
Tortworth, in Gloucestershire, which in King Stephen's
days was so large as to be called the Great Chestnut of
Tortworth. When last measxired it was 52 feet in
girth. There are also some very fine old trees to be
seen in Kensington Gardens and Greenwich Park.
perianth, single, urceolate, 5-6 lobed, having the rudiments of
12 stamens; germen incorporated with the perianth, 6-celled,
with the cells 2-seeded, 5 of them mostly abortive; styles 6;
nut 1-2, seeded, invested with the enlarged involucre. Spec,
char. : Leaves oblong, lanceolate, acuminate, mucronate, serrate,
glabrous on each Bide.
CHESTNUT.
THE EATABLE Oil SPANISH CHESTNUT. 49
One of the best purposes, it is said, to which Chestnut
wood can be applied is for making wine-casks, as it is
less apt to taint the wine than any other wood, and
thoroughly prevents evaporation. This use of Chestnut
wood is referred to by Kapin, in his poem, "The
Garden :"
" With close-grained chestnut, wood of sov'reign use,
For casking up the grape's most potent juice."
The fruit of the Chestnut seems to be held in much
less esteem by the English than by the natives of most
other countries where it abounds. In some parts of
France and Italy, chestnuts are used in great measure
as substitutes for potatoes, and even bread, forming
often a chief article of food for the poorer inhabitants.
There are some scientific recipes for preparing them
with milk, .eggs, and various other additions ; and in
this state they form very popular dishes, sometimes
rising to the rank of luxuries. The odour of the
flowers is very powerful and peculiar, rendering the
neighbourhood of the tree absolutely offensive to some
people during the blossoming season.
But few insects frequent the Chestnut, and its foliage
is almost entirely exempt from their attacks ; but a
kind of weevil 1 is often very injurious to the nuts,
piercing them when very young and tender, and depo-
siting its eggs in their substance. The fruit thus
attacked never attains to maturity, dropping off when
half-grown, and its interior of course becomes the prey
of the inclosed grubs of the weevil
1 Pyrale Pflugione.
50 OUR WOODLANDS.
THE HOESE CHESTNUT. 1
(^Escidus Hippocdstanum.)
THOUGH both this tree and the last bear the name of
Chestnut, no two trees can be much more botanically
LEA* OF HORSH CHMT1TOT.
distinct than the Sweet Chestnut and the Horse Chest-
nut, which are very widely separated both in the
Linnsean and natural systems of classification j yet we
have heard them sometimes spoken of as being merely
different species of the same genus, one adapted for the
food of horses, the other for that of men ; an instance of
the kind of error so frequently occurring from neglect of
the scientific nomenclature, really indispensable in pro-
perly defining natural-history subjects. The chief point
1 j&sculus Jlippocastanum. Nat. order, ^Ssculacece; Lin.
syst. : Heptandria, Monogynia. Gen. char. : Calyx 1 -leaved,
inflated ; corolla 4-5 petaled, unequal, pubescent, inserted in
the calyx ; capsule 3-celled ; seeds large, chestnut-like. Spec,
char. : Leaves digitate, 7 ; petals 5, spreading.
THE HORSE CHESTNUT. 51
of resemblance between the two Chestnuts lies in the
i'act that they both produce nuts of similar aspect,
although these differ very greatly in quality.
ISfature can show few objects of greater magnificence
than a princely Horse Chestnut-tree in early summer,
when robed, as it is so aptly described by Sir T. D.
Lander, " in all the richness of its heavy velvet drapery,
embroidered over with millions of silver flowers." Both
the leaves and flowers are exceedingly beautiful when
examined singly and closely, besides the striking effect
they produce when massed together on the tree. The
delicate white blossoms, tinted with yellow and rosy-
red, and arranged in a hyacinth-like form, would grace a
choice bouquet, and the symmetrical elegance of the
ample leaves is unrivalled among native trees.
The anatomy of a bud of the Horse Chestnut, taken
in the very early spring, affords one of the best instances
of that wonderful arrangement of nature by which a
minute bud is made to contain a large number of inci-
pient flowers or leaves, which, notwithstanding their
microscopic smallness, are perfect miniatures of the
coming leaves and blossoms. To exemplify this, we
quote the following experiment from the Magazine of
Xatural History, and any of our readers who have access
to a Horse Chestnut-tree may verify it for themselves.
"A celebrated German naturalist detached from this
tree in the winter season a flower-bud not larger than
a pea, and first took off the external covering, which he
found consisted of seventeen scales. Having removed
these scales, and the down which formed the internal
covering of the bud, he discovered four branch leaves
surrounding a spike of flowers, the latter of which were
so distinctly visible, that, with the aid of a microscope,
he not only counted sixty-eight flowers, but could discern
the pollen of the stamens, and perceive that some was
opaqti", and some transparent."
j.^c Horse Chestnut is planted in this country almost
solely for its highly ornamental qualities as a tree, as
neither the fruit nor timber is of much value ; the nuts
E2
02 OUH WOODLANDS.
being bitter and uneatable by man, and the wood soft,
weak, and only applicable to a few purposes where
neither strength nor durability are required.
This tree is said to have been brought to England
from the mountains of Thibet, some time about the middle
of the sixteenth century.
THE WILD PEAR TREE. 1 Pyrm communis.
IN our spring rambles through the woods we occa-
sionally come upon a tall, handsome tree, bearing a pro-
fusion of white flowers among its young green leaves :
this is the Wild Pear-tree, from which were derived,
by cultivation, all those choice varieties that grace the
dessert-table ; a wonderful change to be accomplished
merely by the gardener's art, when we compare the
austere little wilding fruit with the goodly Jargonelles,
or fleurrees, so ample in ske and luscious in flavour.
We must not, however, descant on the uses and per-
fections of the cultivated pear, as our chief concern in
this volume is with those objects met with in a wild
state. As the fruit of the Wild Pear is small and hardly
eatable, the wood is the only part of the tree of an}-
real value ; this is very compact and fine-grained, and
has been used for fine carvings, and once was the chief
material from which wood engravings were executed.
The curious old cuts in Gerarde's Herball were probably
on this wood ; but for this purpose it is greatly inferior
to box, now the only wood used for engraving subjects
wherein delicacy of execution is required. Pear- wood,
1 Pyrus communis. Nat. order, Pomacece ; Lin. syst. : Icosan-
dria di-pentagynia. Gen. char. : Calyx with 5 segments ; petals
5 ; styles 2-5 ; fruit fleshy, with 5 distinct, cartilaginous, 2-
seeded cells. Spec. char. : Leaves simple, ovate, serrated ;
flower stalks corymbose ; fruit turbinate.
THE WILD APPLE OR CttAB TREE. 53
when dyed black, so closely imitates ebony, that it can
with difficulty be distinguished from it, and in this state
it is used for picture-frames, and innumerable purposes
of fancy or utility.
THE WILD APPLE OR CRAB-TREE. 1
(Pyj'us Mdlus.)
FAR more frequent in our woods and thickets than the
pear, is the Wild Apple, which, though a low tree,
stumpy and graceless in form, puts forth every season
such an array of white and rosy blossoms, that when
PCi'ii in May, with these in then: perfection, it yields to
i'ow plants in beauty, and forms one of the greatest
spring ornaments to the woods it inhabits.
The Wild Apple bloom, too, is not only beautiful in
muss, but a sprig, when gathered and examined in detail,
is, perhaps, still more lovely, the curled and crumpled
petals being varied with every delicate shade, from
satiny white to deep rose red. The ripe fruit, also, has
external beauties of its own, but there let our commen-
dation rest, for the sourness and austerity of its taste
are proverbial, " cra&biness " being, as we know, synony-
mous with all that is the reverse of sweet and pleasant. 2
Yet this little sour fruit is the origin of most of our
esteemed orchard and garden apples, the vast difference
between them being the result of assiduous cultivation.
A large number of insects of various orders inhabit
and feed on both the wild and cultivated apple tree, the
most important of which, not indeed for its use or
beauty, but on account of the injury it works, is that
1 Pyrus Mains. Gen. char. : see page 52. Spec. char. : Leaves
ovate, rugose, serrated ; flowers in a simple sessile umbel ; styles
united below ; fruit globose.
2 Verjuice is the expressed juice of the Crab.
54 OUR WOODLANDS.
called the Woolly Aphis, 1 a little creature that produces
that white downy matter sometimes seen covering the
stems and branches of the tree, which when thus
infected become cankered, and ere long perish. The
mischief, howevftr, is not caused by this white substance
itself, which is merely a secretion, thrown out by the
insect as a protection to it while engaged in feeding on
the life juices of the tree ; for if a tuft of this "blight,"
as it is called, is closely examined, tiny soft insects will
be found, crouching close to the bark, and resembling
the Aphides so common in the rose and other plants.
Various remedies have been tried, to destroy this pest,
but all of them involve much labour, and in large
orchards its extermination is hopeless.
Every one has experienced the annoyance of finding
a tempting apple all worm-eaten, within, and the track
of the spoiler defiled with dust and rottenness ; but
few have marked the curious economy of the little animal
that has forestalled us in the enjoyment of our fruit.
About Midsummer, a beautiful little moth, studded with
silver specks, may be seen visiting the newly-set apples,
and depositing in the eye of each a single egg ; this,
shortly hatching, produces a tiny grub, that, forthwith,
sets to work, and eats his way deep into the substance
of the young apple, but studiously keeping clear of the
vital core (any injury to which would cause the prema-
ture fall of his home) until the apple and himself are
together approaching maturity, when he at last makes
for the core, and changing his diet, feeds away the last
clays of his grubhood upon the nutty pips ; these being
destroyed, the apple seems as if struck to the heart, and
speedily drops to the ground. This is just what our
little friend desired, tired even of fragrant pips, he
wanted a thorough change in. life- to see the world, in
fact and the apple's fall is the signal for him to move.
A passage which he had long ago tunnelled through to
the air, to afford him a supply of that element, now
serves him as a means of exit ; and emerging therefrom,
1 Eriosoma Mali.
THE WILD SEEVICE TREE. 55
he seeks the nearest tree trunk, crawls up it, and, finding
a snug crevice, ensconces himself therein, fitting up the
chosen spot for winter-quarters, by the addition of a
white silk lining and curtain. Here he snoozes away the
winter long as a chrysalis, being one of those gentry that
don't care much for life, except in " the season," and
June being "the season" with his circle, he then
appears in society, a dandy of the first water, profuse
with his silver studs, and carrying a name that many a
foreign Count would be glad of ; " Cai'pocapsa poma-
nella," is his card, and if he isn't conceited, he might
well be but we forget he is only the grub that spoilt
the apple for us, after all.
The pretty little Ermine Moth ' commits great ravages
on the leaves of the Apple tribe ; but though its bio-
graphy is most interesting, we must omit it here, lest it
be said we are forgetting the trees for the insects that
live on them.
From our own experience, the Mistletoe is found
parasitic upon the Crab far more frequently than upon
any other tree.
THE WILD SERVICE TBEE. 2
Pyrus tormindlis. (Plate C, fig. 2.)
IN situations where the Wild Crab flourishes, and espe-
cially in the southern parts of the kingdom, we may
often meet with the Service Tree. It has been found in
many places in the vicinity of London, among others at
Caen Wood, near Hampstead ; near Chingford in Epping
Forest ; and we have seen it growing luxuriantly on
1 Tinea padella.
* Pyrus Tormindlis. Geu. char. : see page 52. Spec. char. :
Leaves ovate or cordate, serrated, 7-lobed; the lower lobes
divaricating ; flower-stalks cyme-corymbose, branched.
56 OUU WOODLANDS.
the chalk hills about Caterham, in Surrey. It makes an
ornamental tree, both from the richness of its broad and
curiously-shaped leaves, added to the large clusters of
white flowers which appear in May, and from the pro-
fuse bunches of broAvn fruit, garnishing every branch in
Autumn. The leaves are, when full-sized, nearly four
inches long, and three inches broad in the middle (our
figure was drawn from a small specimen, to avoid croAvd-
ing the plate) ; the fruit is of a greenish brown when ripe,
and of an acid, rough flavour ; which, however, becomes
very agreeable when the fruit is in a state of incipient
decay, and mellowed by frost. In this condition we
have sometimes seen it brought to market by country
people, who string several hundreds of the berries
together round a stick, so as to form a large cylindrical
cluster, a yard long or more.
This tree does not generally grow to a large size, but
has been known to attain the height of fifty-four feet,
with a trunk three and a half feet thick.
The wood is very hard and close-grained, and valuable
for making various small articles of turnery, &c. ; but
it is not sufficiently abundant to have much importance
in this respect.
THE WHITE BEAM TREE. 1
Pyrus Aria. (Plate C, fig. 1.)
WHAT a striking ornament to the rocky limestone
districts in which it aboiinds, is the White Beam Tree,
especially in the Autumn, with its liberal clusters of
rich scarlet berries, contrasting powerfully with the
snowy under-sides of the leaves, displayed by every
1 Pyrus Aria. Gen. char. : see page 52. Spec. char. : Leaves
ovate, cut, serrated; hoary beneath; flower.3 in a dense flat
corymbus ; fruit globose.
THE MOUNTAIN ASH, OB ROAN TREE. 57
breath of wind! This tree is not uncommon in the
chalk-hills of Kent and Surrey, but -we consider that,
like the mountain ash, it appears to infinitely greater
advantage in the situations first mentioned, where the
grey of the limestone-rock gives full value to the bright-
coloured fruit and foliage, relieved upon it.
The fruit is full of a mealy, acid pulp, becoming
sweeter when kept till over-ripe, and then not disagree-
able to cat. A kind of beer may be obtained by fer-
menting the benies, and by distillation they afford a
strong spirit. Small birds and animals, especially the
hedge-hog, are exceedingly fond of the fruit, and devour
it greedily.
The wood, though usually of small size, is not with-
out its value, being extremely hard and fine-grained, of
a yellowish tint, and taking a high polish. Its chief use
is for making cogs for wheels used in machinery, for
which purpose it is universally employed where iron
has not superseded wood in millwork. Musical instru-
ments are also made of it, as well as handles to cutlery,
walking-sticks, wooden spoons, and various small turnery
articles, in some of which it forms a good substitute for
boxwood. The White Beam Tree has had several
synonymes bestowed on it, among which are, Red
Chess- Apple, Cumberland Hawthorn, "White "Wild Pear,
and Sea Ouler.
THE MOUNTAIN ASH, OR ROAN TREE. 1
Pyms Aucup&ria. (Plate C, fig. 3.)
BETWEEN the trim suburban garden, and the grim
Highland steep, there is, doubtless, a vast constitutional
1 Pyrus Aiicuparia. Gen. char.: see page 52. Spec. char. :
Leaves pinnated ; leaflets uniform, smooth, serrated ; flowers
corymbose ; fruit globose.
58 OUR WOODLANDS.
difference ; so that, in general, an object harmonizing
with the one, would seem to be totally discordant with
the other ; yet the Mountain. Ash oversteps the diffi-
culty, and with easy grace accommodates itself to either
situation. But ornamental as it is to the villa, we fancy
there are few who would not prefer it in its native
locality, as a wild mountaineer, in which character it
claims our enthusiastic admiration. How lovely is its
Spring foliage, of airiest lightness, and freshest verdure,
every branch decked with large tufts of fragrant and
conspicuous cream-white flowers. But the season of its
greatest and characteristic beauty is when the flowers
have given way to the glowing orange fruit, with which
Autumn loads every bough. Then, peculiarly, is it the
Mountain Ash beloved by poet and painter, and asso-
ciated in our own mind with scenery, the grandest and
the fairest we have witnessed.
From very early times, the Eoan Tree enjoyed a
wide reputation, not so much for its external beauty, as
for the inherent magical powers attributed to it, by
virtue of which its presence was considered to prove a
sovereign charm against the evil machinations of witch-
craft ; and the superstition still lingers in sequestered
districts, especially in the Highlands of Scotland and in
Wales, " where it is often hung up over doorways, and
in stables and cow-houses, to neutralize the wicked
spells of witches and warlocks." A stump of the Eoan
Tree has been frequently found in the old burying-
places and stone circles of the Druids, probably a relic
of the tree planted by them for its sacred shade.
Turning from the picturesque or romantic, to the
utilitarian view of this tree, we find that both wood and
fruit serve a variety of good purposes. The wood, when
it can be obtained of sufficiently large size, is applied to
the same uses as that of the White Beam-tree, which it
very nearly resembles in quality ; and it used to be
esteemed next to Yew for bows. The beautiful fruit is
a very favourite food of birds, especially of the thrush
tribe, who never cease their attentions to the trees while
THE MEDLAR. 59
a berry remains ; nor is it without its direct utility to
man. Evelyn tells us that "ale and beer brewed with
these berries being ripe is an incomparable drink, fami-
liar in "Wales." These berries are even eaten raw as a
fruit, but we cannot recommend them, except as curi-
osities, for they are harsh and austere, with a nauseous
under-taste, so that, with most persons, one will suffice
for a dose.
Bird-catchers, taking advantage of the fondness of the
feathered tribes for these berries, make them the chief
bait to the horse-hair nooses, which they lay in the
woods, to catch fieldfares, redwings, and other birds.
In reference to this, the Mountain Ash is often called
the Fowler's Service-tree ; and the following synonymes
are among those applied to it in various districts,
Quicken Tree, Quick Beam, Mountain Service, Rowan
Tree, "Witchen Tree, and Wiggen Tree. The term
"witchen," of which "wiggen" is only a corruption,
relates to the supposed anti-m'fcAcraft properties of the
tree.
THE MEDLAR 1 (Mespilus germdnica.}
THE Medlar is not uufrequently found in a wild state
in woods and coppices in Sussex, Kent, and Surrey ; in
the latter county, liedhill, Reigate, and between Rei-
gate" and Nutfield, have been given as more definite
localities where it may be met with. It forms a tree of
the size and shape of an ordinary apple-tree, and may
be readily known by its fantastically twisted branches,
1 Mespilus germanica. Nat. order, Pomacece : Lin. syst. :
Icosandria di-pentagynia. Gen. char. : Calyx 6-parted, with
leafy divisions; disk large, honey bearing; styles smooth;
apple turbinate, open, 5-celled, with a bony rectamen. Spec,
char. : Leaves lanceolate, entire or sub-serrate, a little downy ;
flowers solitary, nearly sessile, terminal ; styles (mostly) 5.
GO DUE WOODLANDS.
its fine large leaves, and solitary white flowers, about an
inch broad, which appear in May and June ; but in the
Autumn, the tree is sufficiently marked by the pecu-
liar and well-known fruit, which hardly differs in its
FLOlVEtt iND 1.U.T OF MEDLAR
wild and cultivated states some of the garden varieties
being merely increased in size. The Medlar is one of
those fruits which the French style "fruits defantaisie,"
in contradistinction to those of utility ; and, in fact, the
Medlar-tree must be considered, altogether rather as an
ornamental object than a profitable one, being a very
desirable addition to the shrubbery for the sake of its
fine foliage and blossoms.
Tin: AJ.UKK. <jl
THE ALDER. 1 (Aln us ghdinosa.)
THOUGH tlie Alder, considered individually, is by no
means one of our handsomest trees, it is so intimately
associated with, our recollections of
picturesque river-scenery, either of
that tranquil sylvan character so
general in the lowland vales, or of the
wilder nature met with in the deep
glens and ravines of the mountain
country, that we always look upon
this tree with interest and pleasure.
The Alder also loves to fringe the
margins of our lakes and pools, and
in all these situations becomes a cha-
racteristic and ornamental adjunct, 2
although, we think, that in too large "" A * D ^ TKINS OF
masses the intensely-deep green of its
foliage, is apt to produce a heavy and gloomy effect.
This tree has a considerable commercial value, and it
is sometimes a very profitable one to the plaiiter, from
the fact that it will grow in situations too watery for
even the willow and poplar, being, indeed, the most
thoroughly aquatic of our native trees. Under the most
favourable conditions, the Alder grows to a height of
CO or 70 feet, with a trunk of proportionate thickness ;
but, from 30 to 50 feet is its more usual range of height.
We never observe this tree on a dry chalky soil.
1 Alnus glutinosi. Nat. order, BctulacecR ; Lin. syst. : Monwcia
Tetrandria. Gen. char. : Flowers collected into imbricated cat-
kins (amenta) ; barren flower ; catkins elongated, cylindrical ;
scales 3-lobed, 3-flowered ; calyx 4-parted. Fertile flower,
catkins ovate, scales obscurely 3-cleft, 2-flowered ; calyx none ;
styles 2 ; nuts compressed. Spec. char. : Leaves roundish,
somewhat wedge-shaped, glutinous, the margin lobed and
.serrated ; downy at the axils of the veins beneath.
2 Those who have wandered along the hanks of the Mole iu
Surrey, will acknowledge that much of its peculiar charm is
really owing to the presence of the Alder, which there grows in
great perfection.
62 OUR WOODLANDS.
The wood is white while the tree is standing ; but,
on being cut, it assumes a pale flesh-coloured tint, which
it permanently retains. It is of a soft, even texture,
and is a favourite material for many purposes of the
turner and the wood-carver ; various household vessels
are made of it ; also clogs and wooden soles for shoes.
In France great numbers of the peculiar wooden shoes,
called "sabots," are made of Alder. When dyed black,
either artificially, or by long submersion in peat-bogs,
it is very commonly substituted for ebony, although it is
inferior in hardness and lustre to that wood.
Alder- wood, if kept constantly under water, is almost
imperishable, and therefore is most valuable for making
piles, &c. It is said that on Alder-piles the beautiful
arch of the famous Kialto of Venice is supported.
In the neighbourhood of gunpowder factories we
often see large plantations of this tree, as the wood
furnishes one of the best kinds of charcoal used in
making that explosive compound.
THE WILLOW. 1
THE study and classification of this extensive genus
involves difficulties which have puzzled, not only the
tyro in botany, but even the accomplished professor of
the science, who finds himself at a loss when trying
only to .determine the number of really distinct species
he may have before him, the produce, it may be, of a
single botanical excursion. Out of the group he Avill
select several forms which correspond with what he has
1 Salix. Nat. order, Salicaoece; Lin. syst. : Dioecia Diandria.
Gen. char. : Barren flower scales of the catkin single-flowered,
imbricated, with a nectariferous gland at its base ; perianth ;
stamens 75. Fertile flower scales of the catkin single flowered ;
perianth ; stigmas 2, often cleft ; capsule 1-celled, 2-valved,
many-seeded seeds comose.
THE WILLOW. 63
been accustomed to recognise as so many decided species ;
but, this done, lie will find remaining a number of
doubtful forms intermediate between his so-called species,.
and which he can ascribe to neither. The leaves per-
haps approach to those of one species, while the catkins
or flowers are those of another ; and the complication
is increased by the fact that the Willows belong to that
section of trees that have the male and female flowers
on separate plants ; so that at last the perplexed bota-
nist, finding that the Willows refuse to be woven into
his system, gives up the point, and resigns the subject
to the laborious, plodding German mind, to which the
very intricacy of the study serves as a charm and a
stimulus.
With minute technicalities, and the quibbles of clas-
sification, however, we have no concern here ; and it will
be found that, practically, the differences that charac-
terize the Willows may be resolved into a very few
broad divisions. Thus, an ordinary observer of country
objects, if asked to enumerate the various kinds of
Willow that had come under his notice, would find,
probably, that he had no clearly defined recollection of
more than, at most, half-a-dozen different sorts. Promi-
nent among these would be the Weeping- Willow,
drooping its delicate pensile branches over the lake or
lawn (but this species, by-the-bye, is not an indigenous
native of Britain); then there would be the White
Willow, either with a pollard top, or rising into a large
timber-tree j next might be mentioned the humble
osier, growing in beds by the river-side, and furnishing
material for basket-work ; the grey-foliaged sort that
produces, in very early spring, those yellow blossoms
so well known as " Palms," would make a fourth
variety ; and beyond these he would have a somewhat
vague impression of having seen a Willow with very
yellow twigs (the Golden Willow), and another, with
small, dark, rounded leaves, which would conclude his
list of British Willows. Having arrived at this result,
ho would probably be a little astonished to loarn that
04 OUR WOODLANDS.
some botanists make out more than seventy species
indigenous to Britain, distinguished principally by their
minute details, but all connected by similar habits and
general features.
We shall now give, separately, brief descriptions of
the species which may be regarded as representatives
of the more obvious groups into which the Willows arc
divided by broad characteristics : beginning with
THE COMMON WHITE WILLOW. 1 (Sdlix dlba.)
THIS is the Willow more extensively planted as a
timber-tree than any other species j and, when not dis-
figured by the system of pollarding
prevalent in many districts, is at the
same time the finest and most pic-
turesque of its tribe; growing to a
very large size, and forming an elegant
and imposing tree, its feathery foliage
takes a silvery tint whenever a ruf-
fling breeze exposes the white under-
surface of the leaves ; and when seen
in conjunction with trees of deeper
tint, on the margin of a river or lake,
it constitutes a most agreeable and in-
teresting feature in the landscape.
Even the stunted pollard, too, is
not without its pictorial value, being
often introduced by painters to give
character to aquatic scenery, and to'
j= ^ ^ mark the course of a river in the mid-
distance.
1 Salix alba. Gen. char. : see page 62. Spec. char. : Leaves
elliptic, lanceolate, acute, serrated, permanently silky on both
sides, the lowest serratures glandular; stamens hairy; stigmas
deadly cloven.
LEAF AND MALE
THE COMMON WHITE WILLOW. 63
Dr. Johnson's Willow at Lichfield, one of the largest
on record, was of a species similar in size and character
to the present, and known as the Bedford Willow (Salix
Rmselliana).
The timber of both these kinds is of an elastic, tough,
and durable quality, and much valued for a variety of
purposes. From its non-liability to split by any sudden
shock, it is much used for lining stone-carts and bar-
rows, for boatbuilding, and even in the construction of
small ships ; also in mill- work, turnery, and coopery ;
and its lightness recommends it for the handles of hay-
rakes and other rustic implements. The wood of the
White Willow has been extensively used in the manu-
facture of chip-hats, for which purpose young branches
are taken and cut into thin slices by an instrument
called a shave ; and these are further divided into narrow
filaments by a steel comb with sharp teeth, which is
passed longitudinally down the slice. The smaller rods
and twigs, either with or Avithout their bark, are made
into baskets for domestic use ; or, when split into two
or more pieces, are applied to more ornamental pur-
poses, such as fancy work-baskets, reticules, &c. From
the bark of the Bedford Willow, and some other species,
is extracted, by a chemical process, that valuable tonic
medicine called salicine, which has been found equally
efficacious with Peruvian bark, or its essential product,
quinine, in the cure of intermittent fevers ; thus it ap-
pears that in those wet, marshy districts, where agues
and other low fevers abound, Providence has placed, in
the Willow, a ready and potent remedy. 1 This com-
pensating adjustment the juxtaposition of the disease
and its remedy is probably far more universal in nature
than is generally perceived and taken advantage of.
1 A. strong infusion (made by shredding Willow bark into a
vessel, pouring on some boiling water, and letting the whole
stand together till cool) has nearly the same medicinal effect as
salicine itself, and may be substituted when that more concen-
trated and convenient form of the remedy cannot be quickly
obtained, as must often be the case in naral districts.
F
00 OUR WOODLANDS.
From its astringent properties, the bark of most of
the Willows may be advantageously used for tanning
leather.
Few trees are the resort of a greater number of in-
sects than those of the Willow tribe, whose foliage is
the food of the caterpillars of many fine moths, of which
we may mention the following, as a few of the most
remarkable : the Poplar Hawk-moth, and that richly-
coloured insect, the Eyed Hawk-moth ; those pretty soft
grey and white moths, appropriately called Puss and
Kitten Moths the Emperor Moth, the Lappet Moth,
the Scarlet Tiger Moth, &c. ; and, among the butterflies,
we may occasionally find the caterpillars of the Comma
Butterfly, the large Tortoiseshell Butterfly, and the
Camberwell Beauty. Others, instead of devouring the
foliage, pierce the stems, and feed upon the wood itself,
causing great injury, and often entire destruction to the
tree ; the chief of these internal enemies being the giant
caterpillar of the Goat-moth a disagreeable-looking
great creature, about three inches long, and the thick-
ness of one's finger, of a colour that may be compared
to raw beef on the back, and yellow beneath. It exhales
a peculiar and most unpleasant odour, which has been
compared to that of a goat (whence the name of the
insect); and so powerful is it, that we have detected the
presence of the insect in a tree, and when, of course,
it was invisible to the eye, by this scent alone. Though
common enough (far too common, a tree-grower would
say), this creature is but seldom seen, except by those
engaged in felling and cutting up timber ; we have, how-
ever, occasionally detected it wandering round the tree-
trunk that had been its habitation, in search of- a spot
in which, to undergo its change -to the chrysalis state,
and through that to the form of a large grey moth, with
brownish markings.
Those red, fleshy excrescences, so often seen on the
surface of various Willow-leaves, are galls, produced by
a small species of saw-fly, the grub of which may be
found within. (Some of these galls arc represented on
the White Willow-leaf figured.)
THE GOAT WILLOW, OR SAUGH.
G7
The "White, or Huntingdon Willow, as it is some-
times called, frequently attains at maturity a height of
between sixty and eighty feet, with a trunk from three
to four feet in diameter.
THE GOAT- WILLOW, OR SAUGH. 1
(Sdlix cdprea.)
THIS species, called also the Round-leaved Sallow, may
be readily distinguished by the leaves, which are larger
and broader than in any other
Willow, dark-green above, but
clothed with a white, cottony
down on the under side ; and
in the very early spring, long
before the leaves appear, its
branches are covered with the
bright - yellow blossoms, ga-
thered in the country on the
Sunday before Easter, under
the name of "palms," and car-
ried about by children in com-
memoration of the palms borne
before our Saviour on his entry into Jerusalem.
The joyous feelings inspired by the early blossoming
of this Willow are thus happily expressed by Mr. Selby :
" Our associations as connected with this tree are all
of a pleasing description ; it reminds us, at an early
period of the year, when its pure white silky catkins
first burst the cerements that enshroud them, that the
severity of winter is fast passing away, and a milder
1 Salix capna. Gen. char. : see page 62. Spec. char. : Leaves
ovate, pointed, serrated, waved-downy beneath ; stipules some-
what crescent-shaped ; ovary ovate, downy on a long hairy
stalk ; stigmas undivided, nearly sessile.
F2
68 OUR WOODLANDS.
season approaching. It is also a little later, when those
catkins we lately admired for their silvery lustre are
now glowing with a golden inflorescence, that we first
hear, and listen with pleasurable feelings beneath its
richly-clothed head, to the busy hum of the honey-bee,
and to that of its larger and more sonorous relative, the
humble-bee, whose resuscitation from a long torpidity
we have always been accustomed to hail as a certain in-
dication of the commencement of spring, and of a mild
and genial temperature." Forest Trees.
The Goat-willow, even when full grown, is but a
moderate-sized tree, the largest specimens seldom ex-
ceeding thirty or forty feet in height ; but it is more
generally kept down to underwood or hedge -plant
dimensions, by the constant lopping to which it is
subjected for the sake of the young shoots, used for
wicker-work and hurdle-making. The mature wood
resembles that of the White Willow in its qualities, and
is therefore applied to the same purposes, especially
Avhen its smaller size is not an objection. We may
mention that the bark of this species is among the best
for medicinal use in agues, &c., as a substitute for Cin-
chona bark.
The insects which are found on the last species are
in general common to the rest of the tribe ; but we
must notice one interesting exception in an insect which
appears to be peculiar to the Goat- Willow. This is
the beautiful Lunar Hornet Sphinx (Trodiilium crabroni-
forme), a moth of the clear-winged division, but which
so much resembles a hornet or large wasp in its form
and colouring, that it might readily be mistaken for one
at first sight. If we happen to visit a Sallow plantation,
at a time when the periodical fall of underwood is taking
place, we shall most probably find a number of the
newly-cut stumps perforated with holes, just large
enough to admit the tip of one's little finger, and ex-
tending downwards through the axis of the stems.
These are the work of the larva of the Lunar Hornet
Sphinx, a creature not at all like the generality of
THE GOAT WILLOW, OB SAUGII. 69
caterpillars, but rather resembling a large white maggot
or beetle grub. This creature when young perforates the
LINVP. HOKXET SrUINXj CATEHPII.I.AR, Tl'PA, AND rERi'lXT INSECT.
stem of the Willow near the root, and when it reaches
the centre eats away a gallery, extending it upwards to
the length of several inches. Having completed this
toilsome process, and having arrived itself at maturity
as a caterpillar, it feels the chrysalis change approaching,
and at this point a curious instinct comes into play.
The caterpillar has hitherto been working with its head
upwards, and it will be obvious on looking at the figure,
that, if the chrysalis were placed in the same position,
with its head towards the closed end of the tube, the
moth, on emerging, would find it a matter of great diffi-
culty, if not an impossibility, to escape from its prison
by the passage below, as the comparative rigidity of its
body and wings would prevent its turning in the narrow
space, so as to make its exit head foremost ; but the soft
contractible caterpillar can easily manage this feat, and
so providently turns head-downwards before assuming
the chrysalis state, on awaking from which, the newly-
formed moth makes its way into daylight, without let or
70 OUE WOODLANDS.
hindrance. The sandstone caterpillar of the Purple
Emperor butterfly is said to feed chiefly on the leaves
of this species.
THE COMMON" OSIER, 1 (Sdlix vimindfa.)
WE select this species as the most familiar example of
that class of willows of humble growth, whose abundant
production of long pliant shoots renders
them especially valuable for all purposes
of basket-making and other wicker-work ;
on which account they are largely culti-
vated in moist tracks of ground, princi-
pally by the side of rivers and streams
that occasionally overflow. Such plan-
tations, known as " Osier-beds," abound
to a great extent along the banks of the
Thames, between London and Reading,
and often cover the "aits," or little
islands that every now and then divide
the stream. There are many other
kinds of willow with nearly the same
qualities as the present, which is the
one most generally cultivated, on ac-
count of the superior vigour of its
growth.
To enumerate the services rendered
by the Osier, would only be recounting
the multiplied purposes of convenience
and ornament for which wicker-work of various kinds is
in hourly request, both in commerce and domestic life,
from the rough hamper to the delicate and elegant ap-
1 Salix viminalis. Gen. char. : see page 62. Spec. char. :
Leaves linear, inclining to lanceolate, very long, pointed, entire,
somewhat wavy, silky beneath ; branches straight and slender :
ovary sessile ; style as long as the undivided linear stigmas.
THE COMMON OSIEK. 71
purtenances of the lady's work-table. It is to be
remarked that among the very few refined accomplish-
ments of the ancient Britons, ornamental basket-making
had a prominent place, and their baskets (called in
Latin " bascandce ") were exported to Borne, where they
were held in great admiration, and commanded a high
price.
Wherever the insect tribes abound, there, as a matter
of course, the insect-feeding birds congregate to the
banquet ; and accordingly we find that willow planta-
tions are the resort of a large company of feathered
beings, who, by their constant busy movements and
cheerful twitterings, give great life and interest to the
scene. Here we may see in abundance those little
ornithological acrobats, the Tit-mice (Paridce) hanging
head downwards from the swinging branches, and con-
torting their lithe and prettily coloured bodies into all
sorts of odd postures, as they pry curiously into every
nook and crevice in search of their insect friends. In
the spring we may sometimes find, in considerable
numbers, the nests of the Marsh Tit (Parus palustris),
a gregarious species, which generally chooses a retired
spot among willows for building in. And in such situa-
tions also, the Sedge "Warblers (Salicaria Phragmitis),
though seldom visible, may be heard uttering their
varied song in chorus, and occasionally imitating the
notes of the Linnet, Lark, and Swallow ; while the
Black-cap (Cumica atricapilla), and the Greater Petti-
chaps (Gurruca hort en-sis) from their willowy bowers
pour out nightly strains, hardly to be excelled in sweet-
ness by those of Philomel herself.
72 OUR WOODLANDS.
THE WHITE POPLAR OR ABELE TREE. 1
(Populus alia.)
" The Poplar, that with silver lines his leaf." COWPER.
EVEN at a considerable distance we may recognise this
tree by the peculiar effect of the white under-surface of
the leaves, rendered visible by the
slightest breath of wind, which
also keeps the foliage in that con-
stant quivering motion, charac-
teristic of all the Poplars. These
leaves are dark green above, and
the striking contrast presented
by the under side is caused by a
thick coating of a snowy white,
downy, or cottony substance.
There is a variety of this species,
very common in the country, and sometimes called the
Grey Poplar (Populus alba, v. canescens), which has
leaves more heart-shaped, and less deeply indented
than that represented in the figure; and the -white
down being more sparing on the under-surface, gives it
a greyer aspect than that of the common Abele.
The White Poplar often grows into a very large and
lofty tree, the height when full grown generally varying
from 80 to 100 feet. Some fine specimens, exceeding
the latter altitude, may be seen on the banks of the
Thames between Hampton Court and Chertsey.
From the extreme rapidity of its growth, this tree is
1 Populus alba. Nat. order, Salicacece ; Lin. syst. : Dicscia Oc-
tandria. Gen. char. : Barren flower, scales of the catkin lacerated ;
anthers, 8 to 30, arising from a turbinate, oblique, entire, single
perianth. Fertile flower, scales of the catkin lacerated ; perianth,
turbinate, entire; stigmas 4 ; capsule, superior, 2-celled, 2-valved,
many seeded, seeds comose. Spec. char. : Leaves roundish,
cordate, lobed, toothed, glabrous above, downy, very white
beneath ; fertile catkins ovate ; stigmas 4.
WHITE POl'I-iE UAF.
THE WHITE POPLAR, OH ABELE TREE. 73
sometimes used to form avenues and decorate pleasure-
grounds in the immediate vicinity of new mansions,
where it is desirable to obtain an ornamental effect in
the briefest time possible, though its ultimate pic-
turesque effect is far inferior to that of the more rich
and massive trees, such as the elm and chestnut.
As a timber-tree, the White Poplar has some valuable
qualities, being light, soft, and smooth, very white in
colour, and with a toughness that allows nails to be
driven into it near the edge without splitting, so
that it is particularly adapted for packing cases. Its
whiteness, and the facility with which it is scoured,
render it a most excellent wood for the flooring of houses
and factories, more especially as it has the property of
not taking fire without great difficulty, and of burning
very slowly, being in these respects the very opposite of
the usual flooring material, deal, whose rapidly combus-
tible nature is well known. This wood is also used as a
substitute for that of tho lime-tree by carvers and
musical-instrument makers.
The foliage of the Poplars, and among them, that of
the present species, is the resort of an immense number
of insects, and especially of the caterpillars belonging
to various moths, foremost among which is that named
after this tree, the Poplar Hawk-moth, who in the
caterpillar state is a fine large fellow, with a rough
shagreen-like skin, of bright green colour, speckled
with yellow, having seven stripes of the same placed
obliquely on each side, and carrying above the tail a
hard yellow horn. Occasionally these creatures abound
to such an extent, as to strip the trees of their foliage,
and in windy weather, as we walk beneath, a sudden
gust will often whip one of them off his perch, and
bring him down with a heavy thump at our feet, or on
the crown of our hat, as it may happen. About mid-
summer, we may find on Poplar-trunks, the large moth
into which this caterpillar is transformed ; a pretty, but
not gaily coloured insect, of greyish-brown tint, marked
with red on the hind win"*.
74
OUR WOODLANDS.
Other moths attached to the Poplar, are the Eyed
Hawk-moth, with a caterpillar very much resembling the
last mentioned; the Goat-moth, the Iron Prominent and
Pebble Prominent moths, with their grotesque, hump-
backed caterpillars, outvied, however, in personal sin-
gularity, by those of the Puss-moth, 1 which are not at
all uncommon on the Poplar ; the Copper Underwing,
Herald-moth, Poplar Lutestring-moth, &c. The cater-
pillar of the splendid Camberwell Beauty, formerly
called the Poplar Butterfly, also feeds on this tree.
On the decaying stem, or beheaded stump of the
Poplar, we frequently find gigantic specimens of the
Hard-tinder fungus (Boletus igniarius), and other large
and curious agarics.
THE ASPEN, OK TBEMBLLNG POPLAR 2
(JP&pulus tremula.*)
THE Aspen is a tall, straight growing tree, with con-
siderable elegance of form ; the branches stretching oiit
horizontally, but in old
trees taking a drooping
character at their extre-
mities. The leaves are
rather large, and of a dark
glossy green on the upper
surface, and beneath of -a
paler tint, but not white or
doAvny as in the last men-
tioned species. The pecu-
liar tremulous motion of
the foliage, which is com-
1 Described and figured in "Common Objects of the Country."
2 Populus tremula. Gen. char. : see page 72. Spec. char. :
Leaves, nearly orbicular, broadly toothed, glabrous on Ijoth
sides ; petioles compressed ; stigmas 4-auricled at base.
A* OT ASPEX.
THE ASPEN, OR TREMBLING POPLAR. 75
raon to all the poplars, but especially noticeable in the
Aspen, is caused by the great length and slenderness of
the leaf-stalks, which are also flattened vertically, giving
the broad leaf such freedom of motion, that the least
breath of wind sets it quivering, so that "trembling
like an Aspen leaf," has passed into a proverbial com-
parison ; and numerous allusions to it are to be found
among the poets, such, for instance, as that of Spenser ;
" His hand did quake
And tremble like a leaf of Aspen green."
And the rare stillness of the Aspen's leaves is made by
Thomson finely indicative of the breathless hush pre-
ceding a shower :
" Gradual sinks the breeze
Into a perfect calm ; that not a breath
Is heard to quiver through the closing woods,
Or rustling turn the many-twinkling leaves
Of Aspen tall."
The qualities and uses of the timber of this tree are
in most respects the same as those described under the
head of the white poplar, except that it is of a much
more combustible nature than the wood of that tree, or
the rest of the English poplars. The insects also are
generally those of the last species, but there is a kind
of gnat which seems to select the leaves of the Aspen
for its attacks ; puncturing, and depositing its eggs, in
the substance of the leaves and leaf-stalks ; an operation
which leads to the production of those red warty
excrescences we often see on those parts.
The usual height of a full-grown Aspen is from sixty
to eighty feet ; but many much taller specimens are met
with: one at Castle Howard, in Yorkshire, being 130
feet high, with a trunk three feet and a half thick.
76
OUR WOODLANDS.
THE BLACK POPLAR. 1 (Pdpulus nigra.}
EARLY in spring, when the branches of the Black
Poplar arc yet leafless, they are loaded with such a
profusion of deep red catkins,
or pendulous flower-spikes, that
the tree, especially when lit up
by the sun, presents an exceed-
ingly rich and striking appear-
ance, the more remarkable from
the general absence of any
lively tint in nature at this
period. When these catkins
are seen strewed on the ground
beneath, as is often the case
after a high wind, they have
a very great resemblance to
large red caterpillars in various
writhing attitudes ; and, if one
of these is picked up and exa-
mined, it will be found to have
a highly beautiful structure, and it will be then evident
that the rich colouring is entirely owing to the fine
red of the anthers comparatively inconspicuous parts
in the majority of flowers.
The leaves are of a pale-green colour, with yellowish
footstalks, and do not come out till the middle of May,
long after the White and Lombardy Poplars are in
full foliage.
The wood of the Black Poplar is of yellowish-whito
colour, and much used by turners for all kinds of white
wooden vessels, such as bowls, platters, butchers' trays,
&c., and for those purposes generally to which the
white poplar is applicable. The yoiing shoots may be
substituted for those of the willow in basket-making.
1 Populus nigra. Gen. char. : see page 72. Spec. char. :
Leaves deltoid, acute, serrated, glabrous on both sides; fertile
catkins cylindrical, lax; stigmas 4.
LEAF Of BLACK
THE LOMBARDY POPLAR. 77
The bark of old trees, being very thick and light, is
sometimes employed by fishermen, instead of cork, for
supporting their line of nets in the water.
Observant readers may have noticed, on the leaf-
stalks of this Poplar, certain large reddish-coloured pro-
tuberances of various shapes ; some being almost round
and berry-like, others being longer, and of twisted
forms. On the under side of these will often be found
an aperture, leading to a central cavity; which, on
being laid open, discovers the little authors of the de-
formity (if such it need be called), namely, a colony of
minute insects of the Aphis kind (Aphis populi), which
are invested with such wondrous power, that, at their
touch, the vegetable tissues, abandoning their own
proper shapes, mould themselves into such forms as
best suit the convenience and safety of these tiny
magicians.
THE LOMBARDY POPLAR 1 (Populus fastigidta.)
THE tall, straight, spire-like form of the Lombardy
Poplar, entirely distinct from that of any other de-
ciduous tree in the country, is so universally known,
that any description of its appearance is needless for
the purpose of identifying it; and the leaf so nearly
resembles that of the black poplar that we deemed it
unnecessary to figure it.
Familiar as this tree has now become, as a rural object
and suburban ornament, we can hardly imagine that it
was an exotic almost unknown in tliis country about a
century ago, at which time plants or cuttings of it were
imported from Turin.
Few trees have such a marked influence over the
1 Populus fastigiata. Gen. char. : see page 72. Spec. char. :
Leaves smooth on each side, acuminate, sen-ate, deltoid, broader
than long.
78 OUR WOODLANDS.
character of landscape scenery, especially towards the
mid-distance, as the Lombardy Poplar ; the to \vering
perpendicular lines of which afford, in many situations,
an agreeable relief to the prevailing flat or rounded
forms with which it may be intermixed, producing the
kind of effect in wooded scenes that spires and turrets
do in the aspect of a city, when seen from a commanding
point of view.
The graceful action of this tree, under the influence
of the wind, is one of its peculiar charms, and has
attracted the notice and admiration of poets and painters.
Other trees have their branches waved by the zephyr,
or lashed violently by the gale, but none bend with
that plume-like sweep of its whole form that charac-
terizes the motion of this :
" The Poplar's shoot,
Which like a feather, waves from head to foot."
LEIGH HUNT.
The growth of this, as well as of all the Poplars, is
extremely rapid ; but its existence, like that of most
quick-growing trees, is proportionately brief. As an
instance of the celerity with which it sometimes arrives
at a magnificent height, there is, or lately was, in the
village of Great Tew, in Oxfordshire, a Lombardy
Poplar, planted by a man who lived in a cottage within
its shadow and survived to see his nursling attain the
towering stature of 125 feet in the space of fifty years.
THE YEW. 1 (Ttixus laccdta.) (Plate F, Fig. 2.)
WHEN comparatively young, the Yew forms a pyramidal-
shaped tree, maintaining this outline till it arrives at a
1 Taxus baccata. Nat. order, Taxaccce. Lin. syst. : Diceciu
Monadelpkia. Gen. char. : Barren flower, perianth single at
the base ; stamens numerous ; anthers peltate, 6 or 8-celled,
THE YEW. 79
very advanced age, when it becomes a flat or round-
headed tree, of low stature compared with the stoutness
of its trunk, which is usually a gnarled and knotty
structure, covered with reddish bark, that flakes off
readily on being touched. The leaves and berries need
not be here described, as they are figured in Plate F,
fig. 2.
From its churchyard associations, the Yew has been
generally regarded as a melancholy, funereal tree, and
is addressed by one of our poets as a
" Cheerless, unsocial plant, that loves to dwell
'Midst skulls and coffins, epitaphs and tombs."
But we hold other and far more pleasant feelings
regarding the Yew, associating it with fair scenes in
nature, where its presence had an effect the reverse of
melancholy. On the picturesque banks of the Wye,
for example, between Chepstow and Tintern, it abounds,
and forms at all seasons a striking ornament to the
limestone cliffs that overhang the river. In spring, its
intensely deep green contrasts curiously with the pale-
tinted verdure of the youthful vegetation around it ;
and in autumn, its sable depth has a still finer effect
among the neighbouring rich hues of yellow, red, and
brown, and especially when closely grouped, as we have
seen it, with the bright orange clusters of the mountain
a.sh, and with the snowy leaves and scarlet fruit of the
white beam-tree. In winter, too, its evergreen quality
renders it a valuable relief to the prevailing grey tones
of the landscape.
The origin of the wide-spread custom of planting
Yews in churchyards is involved in much uncertainty,
but it is supposed that the trees often existed, before
the erection of the churches, as appurtenances to the
heathen places of worship, on the site of which, as it is
well known, the early Christian churches were built.
cells opening beneath. Fertile flower, perianth single, urceolate,
scaly ; style ; drupe fleshy, perforated at the extremity.
Spec. char. : Leaves thickly set, linear, distichous, flat ; male
receptacles globose.
80 OUR WOODLANDS.
Another interesting association of the Tew is with
the ancient practice of archery ; the Yew-bow being
formerly esteemed superior to that made from any other
wood ; and the pages of British history, relating to
times prior to the invention of gunpowder, are replete
with instances of its efficiency in warfare, when wielded
by the strong and dexterous hand of the English archer,
to whose good service the momentous victories of Cressy,
Poictiers, and Agincourt, were mainly attributed. It
must be recorded also, among the chronicles of the Yew-
bow, that it proved fatal to three British kings : to
Harold, at the battle of Hastings ; to William Eufus,
in the ]N"ew Forest ; and to Richard Coenr de Lion, at
Limoges, in France. Subsequently to the introduction
of fire-arms, which nullified the military value, and
consequent culture of the Yew-tree, it became -o scarce
as to be seldom procurable of sufficient length and
quality for bows, and the pretty toys used in the very
mild archery practice of the present day, are made of
the various tough and ornamental woods imported from
America.
At a comparatively recent period the Yew was n
favourite garden-tree, not, indeed, for its natural and pic-
turesque form, but as a material for clipping into the
fantastic shapes of verdant sculpture that so delighted
our ancestors, such as figures of nondescript birds and
animals, or the more pleasing and allowable architectural
forms of arcades, pyramids, cones, and the like.
In various parts of the country, but for the most part
in old churchyards, are existing Yew-trees of vast anti-
quity, and with trunks of prodigious dimensions. Among
the grandest of these ancient Yews is that in Buckland
churchyard, about a mile from Dover, the trunk of
which measures twenty-four feet in circumference, and
is remarkable for its grotesque contortions, and the
strange shapes of vegetable anatomy its parts display.
The Yew in Tisbury churchyard, Dorsetshire, is an
enormous specimen, with a trunk thirty-seven feet in
circumference, and having a hollow interior, entered by
THE YEW. 81
a rustic gate, and capable of holding several persons.
Near Staines is a Yew whose age is supposed to exceed
a thousand years. But, perhaps, the most remarkable
Yew in Britain is that in the churchyard of Fort-
ingal, in Perthshire, which is supposed, on good grounds,
to have been a tree at the commencement of the Chris-
tian era. It has now become a mere shell, great part
of the trunk having fallen in, before which its circum-
ference measured more than fifty-six feet.
The heart-wood of the Yew is very hard and fine-
grained, qualities which, in conjunction with its exceed-
ingly beautiful shades and veinings of rich brown and
red, render it the finest of all native woods for purposes
of cabinet-making and turnery- work ; and the knotted
root stumps of the old trees are especially curious and
varied in their markings. Furniture made of Yew has
also the recommendation of being entirely exempt from
the attacks of insects.
The poisonous properties of Yew foliage when eaten
by cattle and horses are well known ; but it appears
that, by mixing the leaves in gradually increasing pro-
portions with the ordinary fodder of animals, they can
at last be brought to eat it alone without any apparent
ill-consequences. The deleterious effects of Yew-leaves
extend to the human race also, and many melancholy
instances are on record in which fatal results have fol-
lowed their administration, especially to children, for it
seems that the leaves have had a considerable repute as a
vermifuge. The viscid scarlet berries, however, do not
share in the poisonous qualities of the foliage, and are
eaten with impunity by children, who generally have a
great relish for them.
No insect, so far as we are aware, feeds on any part
of the Yew excepting its berries, of which wasps have
been observed to be particularly fond, and their eweet-
ness probably attracts many other species of fruit-feeding
flies.
82 OUR WOODLANDS.
THE MISTLETOE. 1 ( Viscum dlbum.)
(Plate A, Fig. 3.)
THE Mistletoe botaiiically remarkable as being the
only true parasitic plant indigenous to this country, and
whose associations are divided between grim traditions
of Druidism and genial Christmas gaieties (to which
latter its overhanging presence not a little contributes)
is in its social position familiar enough to all ; but not
every one has marked its curious appearance when seen
in the woods growing as a pendent bush from the
mossy branch of an old crab-tree, its favourite situation.
Here its effect is of course most striking in the Avinter
season, when, the tree being stripped of its own leaves,
those of the parasite shrub display their golden green
tint most conspicuously. At this period also the pretty
whitish berries are ripened, and add much to the beauty
of the plant.
But the crab is not the only tree to which the
Mistletoe attaches itself, as it is sometimes found wild
on the thorn, poplar, willow, ash, maple, lime, and
others ; occasionally also on the oak, but so rarely, that
its occurrence on that tree is always looked on as a re-
markable event in the annals of botany.
In. Scotland the Mistletoe is almost unknown, and we
believe it is there entirely confined to one locality.
From the viscid glutinous berries of the Mistletoe
the adhesive substance called bird-lime has been some-
times prepared, though it is most frequently procured
from the bark of the holly.
1 Vlscum album. Nat. order, Loranthacece ; Lin. syst.: Dioscia
Tetrandria. Gen. char. : Barren flower, calyx ; petals 4,
dilated at the base, connate, resembling ;i calyx ; anthei-s sessile,
adnate with the petals. Fertile flower, calyx submarginate ;
petals 4, dilated at the base; style 1, drupe inferior, 1-seeded.
Spec. char. : Leaves lanceolate, obtuse ; stem dichotomous ;
heads of flowers axillary.
THE IVY.
83
Birds of the Thrush family are especially fond of
feeding on these berries, and one in particular has
thence acquired the name of the Histle-thrush (Turdus
viscivorus).
The Mistletoe may be artificially propagated by
slitting the bark of a tree, and inserting one of the
seeds in the aperture, binding it over with something
to protect the seed from the busy searching eye of
birds, who would otherwise speedily transfer it to their
own crops.
THE IVY. 1 (Hedera Helix.}
Tins climbing shrub, though often termed a parasitic
plant, is not truly such, since it depends merely for
mechanical support on the
tree to which it attaches
itself, deriving its nou-
rishment honestly through
the medium of its own
roots in the ground; and
never, as the mistletoe
does, from the life-sap of
the friendly tree. Still, it
is probable that its closely
embracing, rope-like stems,
by compressing the trunk
and branches, may check
the flow of sap, and prevent the due expansion of the
tree, causing it eventually to perish. But whatever
injury it may ultimately work to the tree-owner, it is
1 Hedera Helix. Nat. order, Caprifoliacece ; Lin. syst. : Pen-
tandria Monogynia. Gen. char. : Petals 5, oblong ; berry 5-
seeded, surrounded by the calyx. Spec. char. : Leaves ovate, 3-5-
augular and 3-5-lobed; floral, ovate, acuminate, veiny; umbels
erect.
o2
EXUIBS 07 IVY.
84 OUK WOODLANDS.
certain that its appearance, when clothing a decayed
stump, or feathering the lofty stems of vigorous trees,
is eminently picturesque, and that most especially in
winter time, when its glossy verdure is conspicuous
amid the general bareness of vegetation. Every one is
familiar with, and can appreciate, the value of Ivy as an
ornament to the crumbling ruins of castle or abbey, and
to antique architecture of every style. Ivy, when
attached to a building, has been accused of rendering it
damp and hastening its decay, but the contrary of this
is the truth, for it really acts as an efficient protection
against the weather, adding both to the dryness and
warmth of the house.
The shape of the Ivy-leaf varies very considerably (as
shown in the figure above), not only on separate plants,
but on different parts of the same plant ; those belonging
to the flowering shoots having none of that five-fingered
like character of the lower leaves, but having a simply
curved, ovate, or heart-shaped outline.
The pale greenish yellow flowers appear rery late in
the year, their season being from September to the be-
ginning of December ; and by their fragrance, and tho
ample store of honey in their nectaries, they attract a
multitude of insects of all orders, more especially as
other flowers are then scarce, so that an ivied wall in
full flower forms a prolific hunting-ground for the ento-
mologist. We have seen that lively and exquisitely
tinted little insect known as the Azure-blue Butterfly
(Polyommatus argiolus) sporting in great profusion about
the ivied walls of an old Welsh castle, and as this was
in July, before the appearance of the flowers, we suppose
the caterpillar of this species feeds on Ivy-leaves as well
as on those of the holly.
The dark-coloured berries of the Ivy, which succeed
the flowers in thick and numerous clusters, remain on
the plant throughout the winter, and are not fully ripe
till the following spring, forming meanwhile the favour-
ite food of many of the feathered tribe. Conspicuous
among these is the Black-cap, who, after clearing away
THE ARBUTUS, OR STRAWBERRY-TREE. 85
the elder-berries in the autumn, departs to winter in
warmer regions, and on his return to this country in
April finds a store of ripened Ivy-berries prepared,
which carry him on comfortably till his insect food
becomes plentiful ; and it has been observed that
wherever Ivy-berries abound, there will the dulcet,
varied song of the Blackcap first bo heard.
THE ARBUTUS, Oil STRAWBERRY-TREE. 1
(Arbutus unedo.)
THE beautiful Arbutus, or Strawberry-tree, can hardly
be classed among native British trees, since it is never
met with in a wild state in England, though in one
district of the sister-isle it seems to be completely
naturalized, being found in luxuriant abundance on the
limestone rocks of the shore and islets of the Killarney
lake, in the charming scenery of which it forms one of
the choicest features. Fig. 5 on plate G represents one
of the fine strawberry-like berries, the tempting ap-
pearance of which, however, is not borne out by their
flavour, which is mawkish and vapid.
1 Arbutus unedo. Nat. order, Ericacea ; Lin. syst.: Decandria
Monoyynia. Gen. char. : Calyx 5-parted ; corolla ovate, with a
5-cleft orifice ; pellucid at base ; berry 5-celled. Spec. char. :
Stem arborescent ; leaves oblong, lanceolate ; panicles smooth,
nodding; berries many-seeded.
86 OUR HEATH-LANDS.
THE HEATH-LANDS.
IF, in the umbrageous forest, its grandeur and luxuri-
ance of life afford iis a deep, still joy, which accords
well with our more pensive, moods, there is, in the
breezy upland Heath, an exhilarating influence, to which
every lover of pure, mid nature is responsive. To our
mind there is no season of the year when the high Heath-
land country has not its charms. Even in winter, when
both flower and leaf are gone, the artist-eye rejoices in
the varied effects of light and shade chasing each other
over the expanse to which even the wintry tempest
lends peculiar beauties : as when the overhanging storm-
cloud throws the mid-distance into deep pxirple gloom,
out of which perhaps stands, conspicuous by contrast,
some lone crag gilded by a stray sunbeam ; while a fore-
ground stretches before the artist's glance, which even at
that drear season affords a rich treasury of colour, with
all its endless harmonies of russet, olive, grey, and gold
given by the withered heather, brakes, and other plants,
still " beautiful in death," with the mosses, stones, and
all the thousand accessories of a moorland scene.
Our English landscape-painters have many of them
depicted in their Avorks the finest phases of such
scenery, and that with a success that testifies to their
having felt to the full its magic spell. Few, if any, of
the works of foreign schools come near to the best of
our own in this respect. We remember none, and
believe that the intense admiration and loving appre-
ciation of beauties discoverable in the so-called " barren
waste," are almost peculiarly British.
But if in winter the Heath-lands are grand and
picturable (if we may apply that term to scenes that
no picture is able really to represent), how much more
so are they when the advancing summer clothes them
with a richer beauty, bringing out in fair succession the
tender verdure and lovely blossoms, and, after those,
HEATH-LAND PLANTS. 87
the stores of wilding fruits that especially enrich the
rough mountain sides !
With spring come the delicate waxen blooms of the
Bilberry, and its relatives the Cowberry, Bleaberry,
Cxanberry, and Bearberry. Then, a little further in
the season, the near landscape is all purple and gold
with the masses of Heather, Furze, and Broom. The
bright air is perfumed with the breath of these, and
a-hum with the song of the bee and other busy insects,
who come to sip the lavish sweets of this sea of
blossoms. Every sense is thus delighted, and, in such
a scene and time as this the very sense of being is a joy,
to those at least (and many they are, we know) whose
hearts the world has not closed to all the " skyey influ-
ences " which are upon the open hill-side in summer.
In speaking of the Heath-lands, it should be observed,
that we mean generally those districts where the Heath
and its companions are to be seen in perfection ; as, on
the hill, or mountain-side, sometimes dry and rocky,
sometimes marked with tracts of bog-land, and each situ-
ation having choice floral treasures of its own. Hither
comes the botanist to seek some coveted rarity, perhaps
rare to him only in his lowland home ; or the enthusi-
astic " fern-collector," who has journeyed some two or
three hundred miles to gather with his own hands a
true "British specimen" of Amesium Germanicum, a
Cystopteris, or a Woodsia, it may be, that he hears Mr.
A. has found on the sides of Ben-So-and-So ; and he
must go and find it too. Well, health and success to
him 1 and this is the place for both.
A large number of our most interesting plants,
denizens of the moorlands, must here go unmentioned,
since this is humbly set forth as a treatise on " Trees and
Shrubs,'' and many of our chief favourites do not come
under either of those designations. Those which do, as
the Heaths, the Gorse, the Bilberry tribe, the Cloudberry,
and others of the Bramble tribe, &c., we shall presently
notice in detail.
88 OUR HEATH-LANDS.
IN describing the Heath-land shrubs, the HEATHER
itself naturally claims precedence, from its wide-spread
abundance, giving name to the tracts of land it covers ;
for the beauty of its blossoms, and the manifold uses to
which the whole plant is applied.
"We may observe in. the first place that there are three
kinds of native Heaths common in Britain. One with
dark green leaves, arranged in threes around the stem,
and bearing vase-shaped blossoms of deep rich purple
colour, this is called the FINE-LEAVED HEATH (Jj/rica
cinerea. 1 )
Then there is that lovely species, the CROSS-LEAVED
HEATH (Erica tetralix 2 ), found in moist boggy spots, and
known by its delicate blush-tinted flowers, of somewhat
similar shape to the last, but more globular, and arranged
in a clustered head at the summit of the stem, and by
its hairy leaves, grouped in fours round the stems.
The third and most important species, called the
COMMON HEATHER or LING (firica vulgdris 3 ), is a plant
of larger growth than the two last, and differs from them
in the shape of its flowers, which are not pitcher-shaped,
but have divided petals, forming open, bell-shaped blos-
soms of pale purplish-pink colour. All these kinds are
subject to occasional variations in the colour of their
flowers, which are sometimes met with, either of a pure
Avhite, or of some tint intermediate between that and
their regular colour ; but these varieties still preserve
the usual distinctive shapes of the species to which
they belong.
The Common Ling it is that constitutes the great
1 Erica cinerea. Nat. order, Ericacce ; Lin. syst. : Octandria
Monoyynia. Gen. char. : Sepals 4, persistent; corolla 4-cleft,
persistent ; filaments inserted in the receptacle ; anthers bifid ;
capsule membranous, 4-8-celled. Spec. char. : Anthers crested ;
corolla ovate ; leaves 3 ; stigma capitate.
a Erica tctralix. Gen. char. : As above. Spec. char. : Anthers
crested ; corolla ovate ; style included ; leaves 4-ciliated ; flower
capitate.
3 Erica vulgaris. Gen. char. : As above. Spec. char. : Anthers
bearded, leaves opposite, sagittate.
THE FURZE, OB GORSE. 89
mass of the Heather, beautiful both as a landscape
feature, and in the close detail of its blossoms, and emi-
nently useful to the inhabitants of the northern districts,
where it especially abounds. In the bleak highlands of
Scotland, its young shoots are almost the sole food of
sheep and cattle in the winter months. Layers of
Heath, intermixed with earth, are employed in forming
the walls, and thatching the roofs, of the rough cabin
of the highlander, and a thick bed of dry Heath often
constitutes his only couch.
From the Heath blossom bees extract a great deal of
honey, which is of dark colour, and possesses a very
peculiar flavour, but is preferred by some palates to
that furnished by the miscellaneous flowers of lowland
districts.
Grouse and many other birds find secure shelter
under the close branches of the Heath, and derive their
chief winter support from its seeds.
The caterpillar of that fine large insect, the Oak
Egger-nioth, is said to feed on the leaves of the Heath.
Besides the three commoner kinds of Heath, there
are two other species, which, though belonging properly
to the south of Europe, have been found wild in Corn-
wall, but appear to be confined to that part of the
country. These are called the CORNISH MOOR HEATH
(rica vdgans), and the CILIATE-LEAVED HEATH (jfirica
cilidris).
THE FURZE, OE GOKSE.'
(Ulex Europdsiis.) (Plate G, Fig. 3.)
How admirable a plant is the Furze of our commons,
with its deep, evergreen, tufted branches, radiant with
1 Flex Ev.ropceus. Nat. order, Lcguminosce ; Lin. syst. : Dia-
d'Jphia Decandria. Gen. char. : Calyx of 2 leaves, with a small
90 OUB HEATH-LANDS.
golden flowers at almost every season throughout the
year ; and when the various heaths come into flower
around it, Avhat glorious harmonies of gold and purple
do their mingled blossoms produce ! Nothing but the
extreme commonness of the Furze in a natural, wild
state, prevents its being cultivated in England among
the choicest ornaments of the garden ; and, in fact, it
is highly valued as such in Sweden and other northern
countries, where it will not grow in the open air, requir-
ing the protection of a greenhouse to preserve it. It is
said that when the famous botanist Dillenius first visited
England, and saw our commons covered with the bril-
liant bloom of the Iiirze, which he had been accustomed
to look on as a choice exotic, he went on his knees in
grateful delight.
There is a smaller variety of the Furze, seldom
exceeding two feet in height (while the ordinary kind
attains to about six feet), and flowering almost exclu-
sively in the months of September, October, and
November, whereas the common Furze flowers most
profusely in the early spring and summer months. By
some botanists this smaller form is made a distinct
species, under the name of the Dwarf Furze (Ulex
ndmts 1 ).
The useful purposes to which the Furze may be
applied are varioiis. The young and tender branches
form an excellent fodder for horses and cattle ; bearing
upon which subject, we quote the following note from a
correspondent to the " Penny Magazine." " In the
neighbourhood of Birmingham there are several large
dairy establishments in which gorse is used as an article
of food. There is a small steam-engine attached to
each, by which the gorse is crushed to a pulp, and in
that state it is given to cows, which soon become very
scale at the base on each side ; legume turgid, scarcely longer
than the calyx. Spec. char. : Teeth of calyx conniving ; bractes
ovate, loose.
1 Ulex nanus. Gen. char. : See above. Spef. char. : Teeth
of calyx distant ; bractes minute, oppressed.
THE BILBERRY. 91
fond of it. A friend of mine feeds his plough-horses
almost entirely on this food, and they both look and
work remarkably well"
On the mountain streamlets of the Isle of Man may
be seen, here and there, small water-wheels that work
a pair of wooden mallets, the action of which effectually
bruises the Furze-tops intended for fodder.
Furze-bushes are also planted in many places for
hedges, and a Furze plantation makes a fine cover for
game. In some places this plant is known by the name
of Whin.
THE BILBERRY. 1 (Vaccmium Myrtlllus.')
(Plate D, Fig. 1.)
THE traveller in our iipland and mountain districts can
hardly fail to have noticed, as his almost constant com-
panion, this cheerful little shrub ; in spring he must have
admired its rosy waxen flowers and fresh green foliage,
and in autumn have eaten its refreshing fruit. It may
be found in some abundance not far from London, as at
Leith Hill, near Dorking, and occasionally quite in the
valleys ; but it flourishes best in a high airy situation,
the summits of the very loftiest mountains of which
this country can boast, only being too elevated for this
hardy little mountaineer. It may be seen on the top
of Ben Lawers, 4,000 feet above the sea.
The berries when fresh have a beautiful bloom on
them ; this, of course, nearly all disappears when they
are brought to market, and then they are of a glossy
black, like black currants. In Yorkshire, and many
1 Yaccinium Hyrtillus. Nat. order, EricacecR ; Lin. syst. : Oc-
tandria Monogynia. Gen. char. : Corolla urceolate, or campanu-
late, 4-5-cleft, with reflexed segments ; filaments inserted on the
ovary; berry 4-5-celled, many seeded. Spec. char. : Peduncles
1 -flowered; leaves serrate, ovate, deciduous, stem angular.
92 OUR HEATH -LANDS.
parts of tho north, large quantities of bilberries arc
brought into the market, being extensively xisecl as an
ingredient in pies and puddings, or preserved in the
form of jam. In Devonshire they are eaten with cream,
and we can speak from personal experience of their
deliciousness and wholesomeness in all these forms ;
and have affectionate memories, also, of many a regale
on mountain-side from the fresh fruit with all the rich
bloom upon it : much, however, of the relish of these
wilding fruits must be set down to the exhilarating air
and those charms of scenery that form the accessories
of a mountain feast ; our epicurean views might probably
be greatly altered were we to taste the same fruit sup-
plied through the mediiim of Covent Garden market.
One of the prettiest sights that greet our eye in the
districts where it abounds, is that of a party of rustic
children " a bilberrying " (for the greater portion of
those that come to market are collected by children) ;
there they may be seen, knee-deep in the "wires," or
clambering over the broken grey rocks to some rich
nest of berries, their tanned faces glowing with health,
and their picturesque dress (or undress) with here and
there bits of bright red, blue, or white to the painter's
eye contrasting beautifully with the purple, grey, and
brown of the moorland, and forming altogether rich
pictorial subjects. The berries are also eaten by game,
to which the dense foliage affords a secure covert ;
and their juice is employed to stain paper and linen of
a purple colour. Goats and sheep are in some places
fed on the plant, but it is rejected by horses and cows.
We have seen it cultivated with a pretty effect on rock-
work, &c., in a sandy peat soil.
The name varies in different districts, "Bilberry"
being perhaps the most general. In some places they
are called Whortleberries, in others Hurts, evidently an
abbreviated corruption of tho last. By the Irish they
are called " F.rawns."
There is another vaccinium that greatly resembles the
Bilberry, especially in its fruits ; this is
THE BLEABERRY AND COWBERRY. 93
THE BLEABEEEY, OE BOG WHORTLEBERRY 1
( Vaccinium uliginosuin) (Plate D, Fig. 2),
which grows in a somewhat similar situation with the
last, though its greater fondness for moisture leads it to
inhabit marshy spots and mountain bogs, where it is
found up to an elevation of 3,500 feet on the Scottish
mountains. The flowers, which appear in April and
May, come in clusters at the end of the branches, and
are of a pale pink colour ; and the fruit, which ripens
in the autumn, is (as we before stated) like that of the
Bilberry, but larger, and is black, with a glaucous bloom
upon it ; in taste it is tolerably agreeable, though rather
insipid, and if eaten in large quantities is reputed to
occasion giddiness and headache, especially if at all
over-ripe.
In France, vintners use the juice for colouring their
wines red, and for that purpose the berries must be in-
nocent enough. They also furnish by distillation an
ardent spirit, highly volatile and intoxicating.
This species may be readily distinguished from the
Bilberry by the plain edges and 'downy under-surface of
its leaves, while those of the Bilberry have the edges
toothed, and are smooth on both sides. The Bleaberry
may be cultivated in gardens with the last species.
THE COWBEEEY, OE MOUNT IDA WHORTLE-
BERRY. 2 (Vacdnium VUis Id<ka.)
(Plate D, Fig. 5.)
THIS is to our mind the most elegant of the Whortleberry
group, especially when in flower. From the trailing roots
1 Vaccinium uliginosum. Gen. char. : See page 91. Spec,
char. : Leaves small, obovate, obtuse, entire, above smooth,
beneath veiny, pubescent, glaucous; flower solitary; corolla
urceolate.
8 Vaccinium, Vitis Idaa. Gen. char. : see page 91. Spec. char. :
94 OUR HEATH-LANDS.
rises a short stem, and from the arched extremity of thia
depends a cluster of elegant Avaxen flowers, white shaded
with a delicate blush tint, and having a beautiful effect
in contrast with the dark evergreen leaves. The fruit
is also very pretty in its tints, particularly in its half-
ripes tate, the sides being then shaded, like a peach, with
reddish hues of more or less intensity, in proportion as
they are exposed to the sun, or shaded by overhanging
leaves. When quite ripe they are of a scarlet or coral
red colour, and have an acid harsh taste, with a con-
siderable amount of bitterness, which renders them,
much less palatable than the cranberry, for which they
are sometimes used as a substitute. The flowers appear
in May and June, and the berries ripen from August to
October. We cannot recommend the berries to be eaten
uncooked, but they are sometimes made into pies in
Derbyshire, and a jelly that is prepared from them is
considered much preferable to that of red currant, as
an accompaniment to venison. In Sweden this preserve
is used medicinally for colds, sore throats, &c., for which
purpose its astringency may render it really beneficial.
It appears to be of much greater commercial importance
in continental countries than our own. It is abundant
in Scotland, Wales, and Derbyshire, and we have fre-
quently met with it on the moors in the south of York-
shire, growing ordinarily five or six inches from the
ground, but in sandy peat it attains double that height.
We have seen a little specimen from the top of Loch-
na-gar, reaching little more than half an inch from the
ground, and yet bearing a full tuft of flowers.
Dwarf; leaves obovate, cmarginate, serrulate, shining above,
dotted beneath ; corolla cylindrical, campanulate.
THE CRANBERRY. 95
THE CRANBERRY l (OxycZccus palustiis)
(Plate D, Fig. 6)
Is another moorland species of the same family, pro-
ducing edible berries, which have acquired a more ex-
tended reputation than those of either of its congeners,
even than the bilberry ; though in this country it now
grows less abundantly than formerly, especially since
drainage and cultivation have almost exterminated its
native bogs and fens.
These valued berries are the produce of a little
trailing, shrubby plant, which grows in considerable
quantities in boggy places, principally in the north of
England and Scotland, but also in some more southern
districts, such as Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire,
also in Woolmer Forest, Herts. The whole plant seldom
rises more than three or four inches. In May or June
its delicate rose-coloured flowers are produced, somewhat
resembling in shape those of the potato, the corolla
being turned back. The fruit is ripe in August or
September. As an instance of the quantity of English
Cranberries once furnished to the markets, it is recorded
by Lightfoot, that, in the single town of Longtown,
Cumberland, 201. or 30^. worth were sold every market
day throughout the season ; and during the last century
those from Lincolnshire and Norfolk were sold by cart-
loads in Norwich. But though the demand for them still
continues, the general enclosing and draining of boglands
have rendered it necessary to draw on foreign markets
for a supply of this fruit, which is now furnished to
1 Oxycoccus palustris. Nat. order, Ericece ; Lin. syst. : Octan-
dria Monogynia. Gen. char. : Calyx 4-cleft; corolla 4-parted,
with linear revolute segments ; filaments conniving ; anthers
tubular, 2-parted ; berry many seeded. Spec. char. : Leaves
oval, revolute at edge, acute, white beneath, segment of corolla
oval.
96 OUK HEATH-LANDS.
us by Russia, Sweden, and America, from which sources
we import annually from 30,000 to 35,000 gallons.
(Those from America are the fruit of another species,
0. Macrocarpus.) The taste of the berries doubtless
familiar to many of our readers is acid, with some as-
tringency, and a peculiarity of flavour that causes them to
be much admired by some persons, and equally disliked
by others. They will keep long in bottles, if gathered
dry, and closely corked. On the Continent, besides the
culinary uses to which we limit the fruit, it is said to be
employed by Russian bankers to whiten silver money,
which they accomplish by boiling the coin in Cran-
berry-juice, the acid of which dissolves the superficial
particles of copper alloy, leaving the surface of the
silver in a state of complete purity. This pretty little
plant can be easily cultivated in the garden by placing
it in a dry sandy peat.
The above constitute the whole of the native members
of the Whortleberry tribe. But there is one other
moorland berry-bearing plant very similar in appearance
to the Cowberry, which is
THE COMMON BEARBERRY.
(Arclostdpkylos Uva-Ursi.) (Plate H, Fig. 2.)
BY some botanists classed as a species of arbutus
(already described) ; but as this diminutive shrub is
very distinct from that tree in appearance, and seems
to range naturally with the vacciniums, to which it is
nearly related, we prefer to introduce it here under its
old name.
We not uncommonly meet with this pretty plant in
heathy, mountainous districts, both in Scotland, the
north of England, and Wales. Its fair, pink blossoms,
come out in May or June, hanging in a cluster from the
end of the stem. The leaves are dark green above, lighter
THE BLACK CROWBERRY. 97
below. The flowers are succeeded by a group of berries,
ripe in September, and then of a bright red colour, but
they cannot be recommended as human food, being filled
with a mealy pulp, of an austere, disagreeable taste,
though they are not absolutely hurtful if eaten. They
are among the berries that go to form the support of
grouse, and other moorland birds, and we read that in
Russia, Sweden, and America, they sometimes consti-
tute the chief food of bears, whence the name Bear-
berry, of which both the generic and specific names are
merely Greek and Latin translations ; but it seems to
us that so bulky a beast as Bruin, must have been put
on short allowance indeed, before he could condescend
to the scanty pickings held out by this tiny shrub. But
though of no immediate service to us as a fruit, this
plant has enjoyed a wide, and according to many
accounts, a not unmerited medicinal reputation, being
among the few native remedies that have not ceded to
the more costly, if not more efficacious drugs from
foreign countries. Its principal use is in affections of
the kidneys, &c., in which cases its efficacy has been
admitted by numerous members of the faculty. The
leaves, which are the parts used in medicine, have a
green-tea odour when dried ; the plant is also used in
tanning and dyeing leather. "When cultivated, it makes
a pretty addition to the rockery, and will thrive tolerably
well in the neighbourhood of London.
THE BLACK CEOWBEEEY. 1
Empetntm nig rum. (Plate D, fig. 4.)
INTERMIXED with the heather and whortleberries we
often find large tufts of an under-shrub, very heath-like
1 Empetrum nigrum. Nat. order, Empetracece ; Lin. syst. :
Dicecia Triandria. Gen. char. : Barren flower, calyx tripartite,
H
98 OUE HEATH-LANDS.
in its aspect, except that it bears shining black berries,
that make a very conspicuous appearance when ripe ;
this is the CroAvberry, or Crakeberry, as it is sometimes
called. Early in the season it bears purplish flowers,
clustered round the stem, and the berries that follow
are about the size of peas, of a glossy brownish-black,
with a circular dimple at the top. They are by no
means palatable, although not poisonous ; in fact, the
Highland children make a practice of eating them ; but
a taste, we know, may be acquired for all sorts of queer
flavours, nauseous as they may be to the untutored
palate. Too great indulgence in these delicacies, how-
ever, is reputed to lead to head-aches, and other
unpleasant symptoms ; but we never pushed our expe-
rience to such an extent as to be able to speak per-
sonally of their qualities in this respect, being con-
tented in this, and many like cases, with the outward
aspect of the plant, which is certainly very ornamental
both in flower and fruit. The berries are said to be
valuable medicinally, as anti-scorbutics. Moor-fowl feed
on them, and they afford, Avhen boiled with alum, a
purple dye. The clan M'Lean in Scotland wear the
Crowberry as their badge.
THE COMMON JUNIPER, 1
(Juniperus communis.} (Plate D, Fig. 3.)
IN its wild state, and that in which it is usually met
with, the Juniper is a low shrub, seldom more than
corolla of 3 petals ; stameii 3, upon long filaments. Fertile
flower, calyx tripartite, corolla of 3 petals ; style very short ;
stigma -with 6-9 rays ; berry superior, globose, with 6-9 seeds.
Spec. char. : Procumbent ; leaves linear, oblong.
1 Juniperus communis. Nat. order, Coniferce ; Lin. syst. : Dicec ia
Monadelphia. Gen. char. : Barren flower, scales of the catkin
THE COMMON JUNIPER. 99
three feet high ; but when planted in a very favourable
soil, it will often rise to the dimensions of a tree. At
"Wardour Castle, in Wiltshire, is one (the largest in
England), thirty feet in height. On chalky or lime-
stone soils we find it growing naturally, in little com-
pact, grey-green bushes, that bear a quantity of berries,
close set on the branches, some green, some brown,
and others of a dark purple-black hue, and covered
with a " bloom." These latter are the ripe berries,
which require two seasons to arrive at maturity, so
that the flower, and the green and ripe fruits, are seen
together on the same bush. These berries are the
parts for which the plant is almost solely valued in
this country, being employed in flavouring the dire-
ful liquid yclept "gin," for which purpose several
hundred tons of them are imported annually from the
Continent ; but even this quantity, large as it may seem,
is quite insufficient to meet the enormous consumption
of the fiery liquid, and the deficiency is made up by
spirits of turpentine, with which all the commoner
qualities of gin are partially, if not wholly flavoured.
A medicinal spirit, much used in dropsical and some
other complaints, is also prepared from Juniper berries.
The wood of the Jumper, from its powerfully aromatic
odour, its beautiful colour, and susceptibility of high
polish, is in great request with turners and manufac-
turers of small fancv wares.
subpeltate; perianth 0; stamens 4-8, 1-celled. Fertile flower,
scales of the catkin few, united at length, fleshy, and surround-
ing the 3-seeded berry. Spec. char. : Leaves teruate, spreading,
ruucrouate, longer than the berry.
H 2
100 OUIl HEATH-LANDS.
THE BOX. 1 (Btixus sempermrcns.)
ON Box-hill, near Dorking, in Surrey, this pretty ever-
green shrub may be seen in great abundance, and grow-
ing in an apparently wild state,
intermixed with low Jumper bushes;
but as the above place, so far as
we are aware, is the only unculti-
vated locality in which it is found,
it can hardly be classed among our
native shrubs.
The appearance of the plant re-
quires no description, as it is uni-
versally known, in its dwarf form
at least, as an edging for garden-
walks and flower-beds. In a state
of nature, however, it is usually
seen as a round bush, or small tree.
By far the most important application of the Box in
the present day, is in the art of wood-engraving, for
which Box-wood is superior to any other known mate-
rial, and it is probable that the high perfection of the
art, as now practised, is in a great measure due to the
use made of this substance, so admirably fulfilling in
every respect the requirements of the engraver. For
this purpose, however, the English Box-trees are seldom
of sufficient size to be available, and our great supply
comes from Turkey, where the tree abounds, attain-
ing a height of twenty-five feet, with a stem from six to
nine inches thick : six or seven hundred tons of this
valuable wood are annually imported from that country.
1 Buxus nempervirens. Nat. order, Euphorbiacece ; Lin. eyst. :
Moncecia Tetrandria. Gen. char. : Barren flower, calyx 4-leaved,
2 opposite outer ones smaller, with one bractea at the base ;
stamens inserted round the rudiment of a germeu. Fertile
flower, calyx as before, with 3 bracteas at the base ; styles 3 ;
etigmas obtuse ; capsules 3-beaked, 3-celled ; cells 2-seeded.
Spec. char. : Leaves oblongo-ovate, retase, convex, glossy; their
petioles slightly dpwny; anthers ovato sagittate,
THE SWEET GALE, OB CANDLEBERKY MYRTLE. 101
For all the finer purposes of carving, turnery, and the
manufacture of mathematical instruments, &c. this
clear yellow, hard, and equal-grained wood possesses a
high value.
THE SWEET GALE, OE CANDLEBEKRY
MYKTLE. 1 (Myrica Gdle.)
THIS shrub is one which, from its humility and sober tints,
we might perhaps pass unnoticed in our mountain ram-
bles, were it not for the delicious
balmy fragrance that it exhales,
and which is alone sufficient to
mark its presence, and distinguish
it from every other native shrub.
"When the sun shines down pow-
s -Os3kl AiBffc^ erfully on a bed of Sweet Gale,
the whole surrounding air, to a
considerable distance, becomes
strongly perfumed by it. The
fragrant essence resides in small
vessels dotted over the surface of
the yellow-green leaves, which,
uz . on being rubbed, give out their
myrtle-like odour very freely.
By boiling in water the small berries which this
shrub produces, a waxy or resinovis substance rises to
the surface, which, if procured in sufficient quantity,
may be used for making candles, that, in burning, give
f J Myrica Gdle. Nat. order, Myricacece ; Lin. syst. : Dicecia
Tetrandria. Gen. char. : Barren flower, scales of the catkin
concave ; perianth 0. Fertile flower, scales of the catkin con-
cave ; perianth, ; styles 2 ; drupe 1-celled, 1-seeded. Spec,
char. : Leaves lanceolate, broader upwards, serrated, stem
shrubby.
102 OUR HEATH-LANDS.
out an agreeable, incense-like smell. From this pro-
duet of its berries, the shrub is sometimes called the
Candleberry Myrtle.
The leaves, which are bitter and aromatic, are occa-
sionally used iu Highland brewing as a substitute for
hops ; and the berries put into beer increase its intoxi-
cating effect, in the same way as do those of Cocculus
indicw.
The Highland clan Campbell wear the Sweet Gale
as their badge.
THE LEAST WILLOW. 1 (Sdlix herbdcea.)
THIS pigmy species, found only in elevated mountainous
situations, is chiefly remarkable as being the smallest
not only of the Willow tribe, but
of all known shrubs, the adjoin-
ing figure representing an. entire
plant of the actual size, yet com-
plete in all the essentials of a
shrub, that is, having a woody
stem and branches, &c.
There are several other species
or varieties of Willow found in
similar situations to the above,
but we have no space to enter
into a description of these, which
differ chiefly from the lowland species of this numerous
and complicated family, in their diminutive size, and a
few technical points interesting only to the professed
botanist.
1 Salix herbdcea. Gen. char. : see page 62. Spec. char. :
Leaves orbicular, somewhat retuse, serrated, shining on each
side; female catkins about 5-flowered; capsule ovate, lanceolate,
f-niooth.
THE U!AST W1LLOM
THE CLOUD-BERRY. 10S
Our attention will next be claimed by the numerous
species of the Bramble tribe, some of which take such
a picturesque part in rustic scenery; and all of them
affording a pleasant and wholesome fruit. In general
they are not confined, like the whortleberries, to the
moorlands and mountains, but overrun hedges and
thickets in the valleys as well, with a few exceptions,
of which one is
THE CLOUD-BEERY. 1 (Rubus Chamcemorus.)
(Plate E, Fig. 3.)
CALLED also the Mountain Bramble and Knotberry,
v/hich we frequently meet with on the high peaty moors
in the North of England, Scotland, and Wales. It
would hardly be supposed, at first sight, to be a species
of Bramble, being of very lowly growth, and destitute
of the thorns which we associate with the tribe ; but
on examination, the structure of the flower, and still
more, of the fruit, indicates its relationship. This little
plant seldom aspires to a height of more than eight or
ten inches, with a rough but not prickly stem, bearing
two or three broad leaves, not at all unlike those of the
mallow ; and at the top of these appears a large white
flower, which is succeeded by a fine pulpy fruit, of a
rich orange colour when ripe (but before this of a bright
scarlet tint), and of an agreeable acid taste, which has
been compared to that of tamarinds, with less fruity
richness than the raspberry, but still always welcome
for its cooling refreshment to those toiling up the un-
shaded mountain-side. Its appearance is always striking,
the large, tempting fruit being borne by such a
comparatively pigmy plant. The Cloud-berry is highly
1 Rvbus Chamcemorus. Nat. order, Rosacea ; Lin. syst. : Ico-
andria Polygynia. Gen. char. : Calyx 5-cleft ; petals 5 ; berry
composed of many cohering fleshy grains ; receptacle nearly dry.
Spec. char. : Leaves simple, lobed ; stem unarmed, 1-flowered.
104 OUR HEATH-LANDS.
esteemed by the natives of the countries in which it
abounds.
Dr. Clarke informs us that he was cured of a bilious
fever by eating great quantities of this fruit in Sweden,
where it probably grows more plentifully than with us.
It is there much prized in the composition of soups
and sauces, and is used for making vinegar.
Among the more southern localities, it has been found
on the hills north of Castletou, in Derbyshire ; also
near Edale.
The beautiful little ARCTIC BRAMBLE 1 (Rubiis arcticus)
is too rare to be classed among the general ornaments
of our mountain Heaths, but it has been found in the
Isle of Mull, and in one or two other localities.
THE STONE BRAMBLE. 2 (Rubus saxdtilis.)
Is likewise a native of the northern and western moun-
tainous districts, groAving in rocky places, and sometimes
in dry woods. Its slender runners creep along the
ground, sending up at intervals, erect shoots a span high ;
these are sparingly armed with weak prickles, and bear
two or three threefold leaves, the stem terminated by a
cluster of flowers, not showy and large, like those of the
two last species, but inconspicuous, and of a greenish
white colour. The fruit, when ripe, is crimson, like
that of the raspberry, and very variable in shape, some-
times consisting of only one, seldom of more than three
or four large grains, or drupes, as they are termed, of
irregular sizes, and of an agreeably acid flavour.
1 Rubus arcticus. Gen. char. : see above. Spec. char. : Leaves
ternate, stem unarmed ; 1-flowered.
- Rtilus saxatilis. Gen. char. : see page ] 03. Spec. char. :
Leaves ternate, naked; runners creeping, herbaceous; panicle
few-flowered.
THE WILD RASPBERRY. 105
THE WILD RASPBERRY. 1 (Rubus idceus.)
THIS, the origin of the well-known and valued Rasp-
berry of our gardens, is frequently to be met with in
woods and thick hedges, in most parts of the country,
though more abundant in the north ; it may, however,
be found in the immediate neighbourhood of London,
in the several directions, as for instance in the vicinity
of Hampstead Heath, at Blackheath, and we have found
much of it in the interesting forest-ground about half-
way between London and Brighton. It grows, in a
wild state, to a height of three or four feet, and may be
readily recognised by the cottony whiteness of the under
surface of the leaves ; the flowers are greenish white
and very small. The fruit is like that of the cultivated
sort, but smaller ; the flavour, however, by no means
inferior, and by many even preferred to that of the
produce of the garden ; this is likewise the case with
the little wild strawberry of our woods, which has been
favourably compared with the monsters of Covent Gar-
den, though the diniinutiveness of the morsel is some-
what tantalising. We need not here dwell on the
delicious fragrance which distinguishes this fruit, and
which is familiar to every one ; nor on the various uses
which render the Raspberry by far the most valuable
of the genus, that is, in the cultivated state, for the
wilding is not sufficiently abundant to have much im-
portance. We are ignorant of the properties of Raspberry
roots, but there is a demand for them by French cooks ;
what part they play in the deep mysteries of the French
kitchen, we can but conjecture; some say they are made
use of in dressing game. The Wild Raspberry is the
food of a caterpillar that produces one of our hand-
somest butterflies, the Silver- washed Fritillary (A rgyn-
nis Paphia), which may be seen in its neighbourhood,
1 Rubus idceus. Gen. char.: see page 103. Spec. char. : Leaves
in fives or threes, pinnated; stem erect, with email unequal
prickle?.
106 OUR HEATH-LANDS.
winging its vigorous flight hither and thither : it is a
brilliant and beautiful insect, with its rich chequering
of orange, brown, and black, and the under side of its
wings marked with washed stripes of silver, whence its
name.
DEWBERRY, OK GREY BRAMBLE. 1
(Rubus ccesius.^)
THIS is frequently confounded with the common Black-
berry, and supposed to be a luxuriantly grown variety,
caused by a peculiarly favourable situation. It is,
however, quite a distinct species, the most obvious dif-
ference being in the fruit, which is covered with a rich
bloom, giving it an appearance of blueness Avanting in the
Blackberry. The flowers are of a beautiful blush-colour.
The fruit, ripe in September, is generally less than that
of a full-sked Blackberry; but the grains of which it
is composed are usually much larger, and, being covered
with fine bloom, give it a rich, inviting appearance, that is
not disappointing on a nearer acquaintance, the superior
flavour and juiciness rendering it very preferable to the
fruit of the common Blackberry. Indeed, its cultivation
might be recommended on that account, as it is probable
that by this means fruit of much larger size might be ob-
tained, bearing the same proportion to that of the wild
sort as the Garden Raspberry does to the wild one. The
Dewberry is distributed pretty generally over the coun-
try, and there are several localities in the neighbourhood
of London that furnish it.
1 Rulus ccesius. Gen. char. : see page 103. Spec. char. : Stem
prostrate, round, glaucous, prickly ; prickles very unequal ;
leaves ternate ; central cordate ; lateral pair sessile ; all wrinkled,
dark green above, pubescent or hoary below; flowera corym-
bous ; petals white.
THE COMMON BLACKBEKBY, OB BRAMBLE. 107
THE COMMON BLACKBEEKY, OE BEAMBLE. 1
(Mubit-s fruticbsus. )
ALL over England, in almost every hedge and thicket,
we may find the Bramble in more or less luxuriance,
and, like many others of our very common plants, it has
gained the distinction, which greater rarities, by their
very infrequency, lose, of being celebrated by poet and
painter, both of whom have often dwelt with delight
upon the picturesque freedom of its growth, and its
mingled fruit and flowers. Who, indeed, does not
know what richness is given to our rural scenery,
whether of mountain-side or green lane, by the tangled
red stems and light sprays of the Bramble, sparkling
with its frail blush blossoms, or drooping heavily with
its loaded clusters of fruit of divers colours, from green
through various shades of red, to the purple black of
maturity? Ebenezer Elliott, one of nature's sincerest
poets, has apostrophised the Bramble in some lines of
great beauty, which, out of genial sympathy with
their spirit, we cannot refrain from here giving at
length :
" Thy fruit full well the school-boy knows,
Wild bramble of the brake !
So, put thou forth thy small white rose ;
I love thee for his sake.
Though woodbines flaunt and rosee glow
O'er all the fragraut bowers,
Thou need'st not be ashamed to show
Thy satin-threaded floirew ;
1 Rubus fruticosus. Gen. char. : see page 103. Spec. char. :
Stem very strong, slightly downy ; prickles very broad at the
base, mostly deflexed ; leaves large, broadly oboval, with short,
indistinct, reflected points, smooth and shining above, usually
white below; panicle much branched, spreading and leafy,
slightly hairy.
108 OUR HEATH-LAXBS.
For dull the eye, the heart is dull,
That cannot feel how fair,
Amid all beauty beautiful,
Thy tender blossoms are !
How delicate thy gaudy frill !
How rich thy branchy stem !
How soft thy voice, when woods are still,
And thou sing'st hymns to them ;
"While silent showers are falling slow,
And 'mid the general hush
A sweet air lifts the little bough,
Lone whispering through the bush !
The primrose to the grave is gone ;
The hawthorn flower is dead ;
The violet by the moss'd grey stone
Hath laid her weary head ;
But thou, wild bramble ! back dost bring
In all their beauteous power,
The fresh green days of life's fair spring,
And boyhood's blossomy hour.
Scorn'd bramble of the brake ! once more
Thou bidst me be a boy,
To gad with thee the woodlands o'er,
In freedom and in joy."
But beauty is not the only attribute of the Bramble,
for its useful qualities are considerable. The familiar
fruit is applicable to several culinary purposes, such as
for making pies and puddings, either alone or in combi-
nation with apples and other fruits, and an agreeable
THE PliCH-BLOSSOM MOTH.
preserve is also prepared from it. The long pliant
shoots are much used in rustic architecture for binding
OUR HEDGES. 109
down thatched roofing, ond in the making of bee-
hives.
On the leaf of the Bramble feeds the caterpillar of a
lovely insect, the Peach-blossom Moth, so called from
the rosy spots which ornament its upper wings, and re-
semble the petals of the Peach-blossom, though they
might with equal justice and greater poetry be com-
pared to the blush-tinted petals of its native Bramble
strewed over its dark brown wings.
THE HEDGES.
IN this division of our subject will be comprised those
shrubs and smaller trees that are found chiefly to com-
pose or to ornament our English hedge-rows, whose
picturesque beauty is so familiarly associated with our
memories of rural delights ; though, indeed, in speaking
thus, we allude to those straggling, untrimmed hedges,
that are supposed to betoken thriftless husbandry; for
as these living fences are by no means designed by their
planters for artistic effect, but solely as walls for the pro-
tection of property, it seems that their useful and pictu-
resque qualities are antagonistic ; the conditions for a
model hedge, in the farmer's eye, being impenetrability,
regularity, and occupance of the least possible space ;
whereas these perfections are precisely those that find
no favour in the artistic or botanic eye.
But what scenes of quiet, rustic beauty do some of
our green lanes afford, winding mazily through their
free-growing, tangled hedges, which each succeeding
season bedecks with its peculiar gifts, of blossom, leaf,
or berry !
Early spring brings the snow-white blossoms of the
Black-thorn, followed by the Hawthorn's richer wreaths.
Summer gives its wild Roses and "Woodbine, making
110 OUK HEDGES.
the green lane a very Eden with their perfume and their
beauty. Then autumn loads the hedge-shrubs with a
liberal store of berries of every hue, rich scarlet " hips
and haws " the blue-black fruits of the Buckthorn and
the Sloe ; the coral-like clusters of the Guelder Rose,
and its relative, the Wayfaring-tree ; the rosy, waxen,
flower-like capsules of the Spindle-tree, and many others,
the mingled brilliance of whose colours almost com-
pensates the eye for the vanished blossoms of summer.
A large number of these bright berries continue to en-
rich the hedges far into the winter, forming a bright
bouquet for Christmas, and some of them remain till
in sese vertitur annus, and Spring resumes her cheerful
reign.
THE HAWTHORN, OR WHITETHORN. 1
(Cratcegus Oxyacantha.) (Plate F, Eig. 4.)
OUR hedges in May can boast no ornament at all
comparable to the Hawthorn, whose blossoms, by their
exquisite fragrance, their snowy beauty, and their early
blooming, render it the universal favourite among our
wild shrubs ; while poets have long sung the praises of
the sweet May-blossom, identifying it even in name
with the fair month of its birth.
It is not often, however, that the Hawthorn is in
flower by the first of May. We know that formerly, in
decking thb ^ay-pole, a branch of May-blossom was
1 Cratcegus Oxyacaniha. Nat. order, Rosacece; Lin. syst. :
Icosandria Di-pentagynia. Gen. char. : Calyx 5-tootlied ; petals
spreading, orbicular; ovary 2-5-celled; styles smooth; apple
fleshy, oblong, closed by the teeth of the calyx, or by the
thickened disk ; putamen bony. Spec. char. : Leaves obtuse,
subtrifid, serrated, smooth; peduncule and calyx nearly smooth;
sepals lanceolate, acute.
THE HAWTHORN, OR WHITETHORN. Ill
considered essential to crown the flowery column ; but
for the last hundred years that is, ever since the alter-
ation of the style, which places May-day eleven days
earlier in the year than before that change the Haw-
thorn has not frequently been found in blossom by that
day ; although in Gilbert "White's Calendar of Mature
we find the earliest observed time of its flowering marked
as happening on April 20th ; but in another season it
was as late as the 10th of June.
Occasionally, when the Hawthorn grows on a clayey
soil, its flowers are found to be tinged with pink, and
sometimes to have a full red, or almost scarlet colour.
The "lied May" of our pleasure-gardens is derived from
some of these originally wild varieties.
The Hawthorn is also as variable in its fruit as in its
flowers, being now and then found bearing woolly fruit,
and again, with a golden yellow fruit, which produces
a remarkably rich appearance in the late autumn and
winter. The usual colour of these berries, or " haws," as
they are called, is a deep, bright red, and dear is their
aspect to many a hard-pressed bird, who finds them his
chief solace and support through the pinching winter
months.
The foliage of the Hawthorn, remarkable for its
elegance, is the chosen food of a great number of inte-
resting insects, principally the caterpillars of various
lepidoptera.
Several species of these are of a gregarious nature,
living together in extensive colonies under a thick net-
work of silk, which serves them for a common protection
while feeding on the foliage enclosed with themselves
in the silken tent.
Among these social net- weavers are the caterpillars of
a fine insect, the Black- veined White Butterfly (Pieris
Cratcegi\ a rarity in some districts, but in certain locali-
ties, and at certain periods, abounding to such an extent
as entirely to strip the Hawthorn hedges of their foliage.
Similar depredations are committed by the gaily-coloured
progeny of the common Lackey Moth, and of the Gold-
112 OUR HEDGES.
tailed, and Brown-tailed Moths ; but the most formid-
able devastators, though the tiniest individually, are the
little Ermine Moths (Yjwnomeuta), small silvery grey
creatures, minutely spotted with black. The curious
twig-like caterpillars of the Brimstone Moth l (a pretty
canary-coloured creature, with brown markings), and of
several other geometers, are common upon the Hawthorn.
THE HOLLY. 2 (Ilex Aquifilium.)
(Plate A, Fig. 4.)
WHILE the hawthorn is pre-eminent for beauty among
the spring blossoms of our hedges, the Holly holds a
place no less distinguished among their winter adorn-
ments ; but its familiar beauties need not here be
descanted upon, as there are few English homes which
are not annually graced by the presence of its growing
coral berries and glistening deep green foliage.
The white flowers of the Holly, which appear in May,
are clustered round the young branches, in the same
position, of course, as the berries that eventually proceed
from them.
There are varieties of the Holly with yellow, and also
with white berries, the former having in particular a
very curious and ornamental appearance. Other varieties
have the leaves marked with stripes or blotches of white
or yellow ; and one, called the Hedgehog Holly, is dis-
tinguished by the singular character of its leaves, which
are armed with spines, not only on their edges, but over
1 Vide " Common Objects of the Country." Plate c, fig. 3
and 3.v, and description.
2 Ilex Aquifolium. Nat. order, Aquifoliaccce ; Lin. syst. :
Teirandria Tctragynia. Gen. char. : Calyx 4-5-toothed ; corolla
rotate, 4-cleft; style 0; berry 4-seeded. Spec. char. : Leaves
ovate, acute, spiny, shining, waved ; flowers axillary, umbelled.
THE HOLLY. 113
the entire upper surface, so as to present no very unapt
resemblance to a hedgehog.
When growing in favourable soil, and left to assume
its natural size and form, the Holly sometimes attains
the dimensions of a large tree, and then, especially in
winter, when covered with thousands of clustered berries,
forms one of the most splendid objects in. nature. The
chief use of the Holly is for making hedges, for which
purpose it is surpassed by no other plant, as it forms
an impenetrable fence, always green and beautiful
throughout the year.
The wood of the Holly is very hard and of fine texture ;
exceedingly white, so as almost to resemble ivory j takes
a fine polish, and can be readily stained of various
colours ; so that from the possession of so many good
qualities it is a wood highly valued by artisans in various
departments of industry ; for instance, in cabinet-making,
it is admirable for veneering, and inlaying, in contrast
with darker woods ; the turner forms it into various
delicate articles of his craft ; and a large number of the
handles of metal teapots and other utensils, are made
of Holly-wood, stained black, in which state it affords a
very good substitute for ebony.
From the bark of the young shoots of the Holly the
birdlime, used by bird-catchers and gardeners, is prin-
cipally obtained, by a process of maceration and tritura-
tion; though the manufacture is not by any means so
extensively pursued as formerly.
Few plants are more entirely exempt from the attacks
of insects than the Holly, yet the leaves are said to bo
the food of the caterpillar of the pretty Azure-blue
butterfly (Polyommatus Argiolus).
114 OUR HEDGES.
THE HAZEL. 1 (C'orylus Avelldna.}
(Plate B, Fig. 1.)
THE Hazel, though it sometimes becomes a moderate-
sized tree, from twenty to thirty feet in height, is far
more generally known as a hedge or coppice shrub, and
as such is placed here among others of that class.
Those who like ourselves have been, in. their early
youth at least, familiar with the pleasures of a country
life, will well remember the romantic delights of " going
a-nutting," when first the rich clusters became em-
browned at their tips, a token of their readiness for the
gathering. Full happy days Avere those, and the Hazel
in autumn still has power to awaken their pleasant
memories within us. Late in the year, too, the foliage
of the Hazel-coppice has a fine effect, as the leaves
assume a rich golden yellow tint, and remain on the
branches till the season has very far advanced. But
not only in autumn is the Hazel an interesting rural
object ; for in earliest spring, often before the snows of
winter have cleared away, its long pendulous tassels or
catkins waving in the wind, are among the first
evidences of nature's awakening life. These catkins are
the male flowers of the Hazel, and are far more conspi-
cuous than the female flowers, which appear at the same
time, and which, though comparatively seldom observed,
on account of their minuteness, are really very beautiful
objects. They are to be found seated on the sides of the
twigs, in the form of little scaly buds, from the points
1 Corylus Avellana. Nat. order, Corylacece ; Lin. syst. :
Monoscia Polyandria. Gen. char. : Barren flowers in a cylin-
drical catkin, its scales 3-cleft ; perianth ; stamens 8 ; anthers
1-celled. Fertile flower, perianth obsolete; germens several,
surrounded by a scaly involucre ; stigmas 2 ; nut 1 -seeded, sur-
rounded at the base with the enlarged united coriaceous scales
of the involucre. Spec. char. : Stipules oblong-obtuse, leaves
roundish-cordate pointed ; involucre of fruit campanulate, rather
spreading, torn at margin.
THE HAZEL. 115
of which proceed tufts of vivid crimson threads, which
are the stigmas of the enclosed flowers. One of these
is shown at Plate B, Fig. la.
The filberts and cob-nuts of our gardens are supposed
to be merely varieties originating in the common Hazel.
The long pliant shoots which the Hazel produces in
great abundance are iised for making crates, hurdles,
hoops, fishing-rods, and various other purposes in
which flexibility, toughness, and regularity of size are
desirable qualifications. Hazel rods, when cut of uni-
form thickness, and varnished, make admirable garden-
seats, and rustic flower-baskets, the design of which
may be agreeably varied by combining peeled and
vmpeeled rods, or those with barks of different shades,
so as to produce striking geometric patterns. Hazel
nuts, either as luxuries or staple provender, are held in
great esteem by various small animals, from school-boys,
squirrels, and the like, down to the corpulent white
grub that we so often turn out of a cracked nut instead
of the expected kernel. This portly individual, soft
and tender as he now is, would, if left undisturbed,
have eventually turned into a curious beetle, of stony
hardness, greyish-brown colour, and furnished with an
extraordinarily long nose or beak. In this state the
insect is called the Nut Weevil, and scientifically Eala-
ninvs nucum.
Several species of birds, whose bills are strong enough
to crack or perforate the hard protecting nut-shell, feed
on its contents. One of these is the Nuthatch (Sitta
fiiiropcea), a prettily-tinted and interesting bird, Avhose
energetic hammering is a frequent sound in the vicinity
of Hazel plantations. Sometimes the bird selects the
crevice of a rough tree-trunk, sometimes the weather-
worn, gaping top of an old fence-post, in which to
wedge the nut that is to be attacked. We remember
watching the labours of a Nuthatch who had chosen the
latter position for his workshop, and on going up to the
place after his departure finding the ground below strewed
plentifully with the fragments of demolished nut-shells.
i2
116 UUP. HEDGES.
The leaves of the Hazel are also the pabulum of
a large number of insects, principally the caterpillars
of various Moths, though one Butterfly, namely, the
Comma, is on its " free-list."
Among the Moths are those known in the fanciful
phraseology of collectors as the Lobster Moth, the Iron-
prominent Moth, the Lunar Marbled-brown Moth, the
Kentish Glory Moth, the Tau Emperor Moth, the
Brown-muslin Moth, the Nut-tree Tussock Moth, the
Copper-underwing Moth, the large Emerald Moth, the
Dark-bordered Beauty Moth, the May High-flyer Moth,
the Dark Oblique-bar Moth, the Great Chequered
Moth, &c.
THE BIRD CHERRY. 1 (Priinus Pddus.)
(Plate B, Fig. 4.)
IN many parts of the country the hedges are commonly
adorned by this very pretty shrub, or small tree, which
in spring is noticeable for its copious sprays of white
flowers, and in autumn for its pendant bunches of fruit,
black when quite ripe, but previously passing through
various tints of green and red. The foliage is bright
and luxuriant, so that during the greater portion of the
year the Bird-Cherry forms a pleasant and picturesque
object.
The uses of the Bird-Cherry to mankind are of no
great importance, but its wood is held in some esteem
among turners and cabinet-makers, being hard, and
richly coloured and veined.
The fruit is not fit for human eating, being nauseous
1 Primus Padus. Nat. order, Rosaccie ; Lin. syst. : Icosandria
Monogynia. Gen. char. : Calyx o-cleft ; petals 5 ; drupe with a
hard smooth nut.- Spec. char. : Flowers racemose, racemes
pendulous, leaves deciduous, doubly serrated, somewhat rugose ;
petioles with 2 glands.
THE SLOE, OR BLACKTHORN. 117
in flavour, and probably dangerous in its effects if taken
in large quantities ; it is nevertheless used to commu-
nicate a pleasant flavour to spirits.
Ten or twelve feet is the usual height of a full-grown
Bird-Cherry tree, when in a state of nature, but in cul-
tivation it sometimes reaches more than double that
height.
_
~~ "
THE SLOE, OR BLACKTHORN". 1 (Prtintis spin6sa.)
(Plate B, Fig. 2.)
THIS spiny bush is commonly called the Blackthorn, in
contradistinction to the whitethorn, or May-blossom
not on account of any difference in the colour of the
blossom, those of the Blackthorn being, in fact, rather
the whiter of the two but because the branches of the
Sloe are covered with blackish bark, while those of the
hawthorn have a much lighter tint
The Blackthorn generally flowers at the commence-
ment of April, but sometimes at the end of March,
and often before the appearance of the leaves, or when
those are but partially developed. Gilbert White re-
marks that "this tree usually blossoms while cold
north-east winds blow ; so that the harsh rugged
weather obtaining at this season is called by the
country people blackthorn winter" (Selborne).
In certain spots where the Blackthorn largely pre-
vails as in some parts of Epping Forest its effect on
the landscape, when in full blossom, is singularly
striking, large portions of ground appearing, when
viewed from a moderate distance, as if partial snow-
A OAVUU C* UCVUOACVW UJOVWUMh CIO AA liill L1UL BU\/ff~
units spinosa. Gen. char.: See page 116. Spec char.:
Peduncles solitary ; leaves elliptic, lanceolate, pubescent be-
neath ; branches spiny
118 OUR HEDGES.
storms had passed over them, leaving broad drifts, and
loading the bushes with a wintry garment.
The fruit is a little globular black plum, covered,
when just ripe, with a beautiful bloom, that gives it
a fine rich blue colour ; but its inviting appearance is
by no means borne out by its taste, which is so immo-
derately sour and austere, that to swallow a morsel of
one is a matter of considerable difficulty, and attended
with an urgent choking sensation in the throat. Our
malediction, however, does not apply to the fruit after
it has been mellowed by frost, when it becomes not
only endurable, but absolutely pleasant in flavour.
" Winterpicks " is a provincial synonyme for this fruit,
and " winterpick-wine " takes the place of port in the
rustic " cellar ; " and not only there for it appears
that the cheaper kinds of so-called port consumed in
this country are largely adulterated with Sloe-juice,
though their indigenous origin is not so openly con-
fessed as in the case of the honest "winterpick-wine"
of the cottager.
But we have not exhausted the commercial virtues of
the Sloe-bush, for it is a well-known fact that dried
Sloe-leaves are extensively used in manufacturing or
compounding tea, sold as Chinese; and though the
article thus adulterated lias been punningly denomi-
nated " Sloe- poison," it probably is if less exhilarating
quite as wholesome as the genuine leaf from Canton.
Thus we see that the simple Sloe of our hedges is
verily a plant of wonderful endowments, since Chinese
bohea, and the wine of Portugal, are equally procurable
from its beneficent branches.
The straight shoots of the Blackthorn furnish admi-
rable walking-sticks, ornamented throughout their length
with a regular series of- projections that give them a
very pretty effect ; and we have not heard that these are
used in adulterating any kind of foreign walking-stick.
The caterpillars of several moths feed on the leaves
of the Sloe, among which are those known as the Small
Egger Moth, the Lobster Moth, the Figure of Eight
THE BARBERRY. 119
Moth, the Dark Dagger Moth, the Green-brindled Dot
Moth, the Magpie Moth, the Brimstone Moth, &c.
THE BULLACE PLUM, sometimes recognised by bo-
tanists as a distinct species under the name of Prunus
insititia, is probably only a variety of the common Sloe,
from which it chiefly differs in the superior size of all
its parts, especially the fruit, which is also frequently
found of a yellow colour tinged with red, and some-
times entirely red. In. taste this fruit is much less
harsh than that of the Sloe, so that it may be used
with advantage for culinary purposes.
THE BAEBEEEY. 1 (Berberis milgdris.}
(Plate B, Eig. 3.)
WE look upon the Barberry as one of the most orna-
mental of hedge-shrubs, either in spring, when covered
with pendent branches of yellow blossoms, or in autumn,
when gay with its ripened scarlet fruit. The leaves,
too, are very pretty in their form, and in the cheerful
green tint they wear in early summer ; these also possess
an agreeable acid taste, and may be used in salads as a
substitute for sorrel.
The berries are too powerfully acid to be eaten with
pleasure in a raw state ; but they are considered to be
delicious when preserved or candied with sugar.
The Barberry, being furnished with close -growing,
thorny branches, is well adapted to form an efficient
1 Serberis vulgaris. Nat. order, Btrberacece ; Lin. syst. : Ilex-
andria Monorjynia. Gen. char. : Calyx 5-leaved ; petals 6, with
glands upou their claws; style 0; stigmas umbilicate; berry 1-
cellerl, 2-4-seeded. Spec. char. : Racemes simple, pendulous ;
leaves obovate, cilii'.tc-toothcil.
120 OUR HEDGES.
and fruit- producing hedge ; but it bears among agri-
culturists the reputation of producing the disease called
"blight," or "rust," in the corn growing near to it; but
probably the only foundation, for this prejudice is the
circumstance of the Barberry being itself subject to the
attacks of a fungus, which covers its blossoms with a
mass of orange-coloured dust, similar to that which cha-
racterises the rust in wheat ; and it is evident that a
Barberry-bush thus affected, and a field of rusted wheat,
may exist in close proximity, without there being any
relation of cause and effect between the two circum-
stances. We may observe, that the minute fungus just
referred to as being found upon the Barberry is an
extremely curious and beautiful object, when viewed
by a low power of the microscope. Its scientific name
is jEcidium Berberidis.
THE GUELDER ROSE. 1 (ViMrnum Opulm.}
(Plate C, Fig. 4.)
THIS pretty shrub is generally to be found wild in
moist hedges and in coppices by the water-side. The
white flowers, which appear in May and June, are pro-
duced in flat clustered heads, the outer flowers of the
cluster being much larger than the inner ones, and of a
different formation, being destitute of both stamens and
pistils. The beautiful Guelder Rose, or Snowball-tree,
of our gardens is merely a variety of this, having all the
flowers barren and dilated, like the outer row in the
wild kind. The leaves are deeply lobed and cut, but
are of variable shape. Their colour in summer is a
1 Viburnum Opulus. Xat. order, Caprifoliaccce ; Liu. sysfc. :
Pintandna Trigi/nia. Gen. char. : Corolla 5-cleft ; berry with
1 seed. Spec char. : Leaves 3-lobed, acuminate, toothed ; stalks
glandular, smooth.
THE WAYFARING TREE.
121
bright green, but in autumn this changes to a beautiful
crimson hue. At this season, too, its brilliant red
clustered fruit forms a striking and highly ornamental
feature to the hedges or thickets where the shrub
occurs. Before the berries are quite ripe they are
beautifully tinted with yellow on the sides least ex-
posed to the light, and have a semi-transparent) waxen
texture.
THE WAYFARING TEEE. 1 (Viburnum Lantdna.)
THE "Wayfaring Tree, belonging to the same genus as
the Guelder Hose, bears a considerable resemblance to
that shrub, both in its flowers
and berries ; but in the leaves
differs entirely those of the
Wayfaring Tree being heart-
shaped, finely toothed at the
edges, and clothed, more espe-
cially on the under surface,
with a white mealy down,
which likewise extends over the
branches.
This shrub is plentifully met
with on chalky or limestone
soils. The large white flower-
licads make a handsome appear-
ance, but still more so do the berries, which at first ;a'e
green, then take a fine red colour, and finally become
black. In shape these berries greatly resemble thn .-.<.'
of the Guelder Rose, and in colour also at least, in
their red stage, which is the period of their greatest
beauty.
1 Viburnum Lantdna. Gen. char. : sec page 120. Spec. chnr. :
Leaves ovate, oblong, cordate, serrate, beneath rugose, with
veins downy.
122 OUR HEDGES.
THE BUCKTHORN. 1 (Khdmnus cathdrticus.)
(Plate F, Fig. 3, b flowers.)
IN hedges and thickets throughout the country, but
principally on chalky or loamy soils, we may occasion-
ally find the Buckthorn growing in considerable plenty.
It forms a shrub, or sometimes a small tree, varying in
height up to a maximum of about ten or twelve feet.
The branches, which are sparingly armed with short
thorns, bear smooth bright green leaves, and clustered
greenish yellow flowers, which are succeeded by nu-
merous round berries of bluish black colour when ripe,
and of a nauseous flavoiir. These berries have a violent
purgative effect if swallowed, and a syrup prepared from
them is sometimes used in medicine. Their juice, in
combination with alum, also forms the pigment called
sap-green, and a beautiful yellow dye is afforded by the
bark.
In winter the appearance of the profuse black berries
garnishing the leafless branches is conspicuously orna-
mental to the hedges where this shrub occurs.
The foliage of the Buckthorn is reputed to be the
chief food of that elegant and familiar insect, the Brim-
stone Butterfly, whose sportive flight on a sunny day in
March, or even earlier, is among the pleasantest sights
that harbinger the coming spring.
Nearly related to the common Buckthorn in its
appearance, as well as in its properties, is the BERRY-
BEARING ALDER, or BREAKING BUCKTHORN 2 (Rhdmnus
1 Rhamnus catharticus. Nat. order, Rhamnacece ; Lin. syst. :
Pentandria Monogynia. Gen. char. : Calyx campanulate 4-5-
cleft, corolla scales protecting the stamens, inserted into the
calyx; stigmas 1-2-5-cleft; berry 3-4-seeded.- Spec, char.:
Spines terminal, flowers 4 -cleft, dioacious ; leaves ovate, stem
erect, berry 4-seeded.
2 Rhamnus Frangula. Geu. char. : as above. Spec. char. :
Flowers monogyuous hermaphrodite ; leaves entire smooth ;
berry 2-seeJed.
THE SEA BUCKTHORN, OR SALLOW THORN. 123
Frdngula). It may be distinguished from the last-
mentioned species by its smooth, blackish branches,
destitute of thorns ; its ovnl leaves, not toothed at the
edge ; its whitish flowers with purple anthers ; and by
the berries containing only two seeds, while those of
the common Buckthorn contain four.
THE SEA BUCKTHOEN, OR SALLOW THOBK'
(Hippophde rhamnoides.) (Plate F, Fig. 1.)
THOUGH abundant enough in certain localities, the
sallow-thorn seems to be restricted in England to the
east and south-east coasts, its range extending from
Yorkshire to Kent. It may be found in plenty on the
sandy coast between Yarmouth and Cromer, and it
grows, or was growing a few years ago, on the green
sand below the church at Folkestone, also upon the sand
to the east of Deal, and upon chalk at Lydden Spout.
It i^ a singular looking shrub, with thorny branches,
remarkable silvery leaves, much whiter on the under
side ; and minute, inconspicuous flowers, succeeded on
the female plants by fine orange-coloured fruit, or
berries, that make a handsome show in the autumn, and
which if not devoured by birds, remain throughout the
winter. These berries have a rich juicy appearance,
and are said to be pleasantly acid to the taste, and
according to some accounts are not at all unwholesome,
though some caution should be exercised in experi-
1 Sippophae rhamnoides. Nat. order, Eleagnacece ; Lin. syst.:
Dicecia Tetrandria. Qeii. char. : Male flowers in a catkin, tetran-
drous ; female solitary in the axillae of the leaves ; calyx tubular,
bifid at end, closed ; disk ; fruit formed of a berried calyx
and akenium. Spec. char. : Leaves linear, lanceolate, smooth
above, white with scales beneath.
124 OUR HEDGES.
menting upon their eatable qualities, since they bear
in some countries the reputation of being in a certain
degree poisonous.
THE DOGWOOD, OR WILD COENEL. 1
(Cornus sanguined.) (Plate G, Fig. 2.)
THIS common shrub of hedges and thickets is readily
distinguishable by the deep red colour of its branches,
and of the leaves also before the fall in autumn. The
flowers, which are produced in clusters, are of a greenish
white colour, and have a disagreeable odour. They are
succeeded by numerous clustered, dark purplish or
almost black berries, which are ripe in September.
The taste of these is very bitter and astringent, but
they abound in an oil which may be procured like that
of olives by expression, and is used on the Continent for
burning in lamps, and in the manufacture of soap.
The very hard wood has been applied to many minor
purposes of utility, but at present its principal use
seems to bo in making butchers' skewers. It is said to
afford the best of all charcoals for gunpowder.
In autumn and winter the appearance of the dog-
wood is highly ornamental to its native coppices, from
the striking red hue of its branches, and the changeful
tints of its leaves passing through various gradations,
from green through purple to the intense crimson that
precedes their dissolution.
1 Corwut sanguined. Nat. order, Cornacece ; Lin. syst. : Te-
trandna Monor/ynia. Gen. char. : Involucre 4-leaved in some ;
calyx 4-toothed; petals 4; drupe with a 2-celled rint. Spec,
char.: Branches upright, leaves ovate, whole-coloured; cymes
depressed flat.
THE SPINDLE-TREE. 125
THE SPINDLE-TREE. 1
(Euonymus Europdeus^) (Plate G, Eig. 1, a the flower.)
SINGULARLY beautiful as the Spindle-tree becomes in
the autumn it presents nothing remarkable in its
appearance earlier in the season. The small greenish
white flowers appear in May, and in September the
curious pendant seed-vessels ripen, remaining till mid-
winter on the branches, and long after the latter have
become leafless. At this season few productions of
nature can vie in elegance with the Spindle-tree, deco-
rated with hundreds of these seed-vessels, or capsules,
of brightest rosy pink colour and waxen texture, which,
quivering on their slender footstalks, at first sight might
well be taken for so many bright blossoms, a fairy
creation in that flowerless season.
The resemblance to a blossom is most decided when
the fully ripe capsules separate into several segments
like the petals of a flower, and gaping open, expose the
brilliant orange-skinned seeds within.
The declining leaves take very pretty ruddy tints,
and add to the ornamental appearance of the shrub.
The wood of the Spindle-tree has been put to various
uses, the chief one, and that from which it derives its
name, being in the making of spindles.
The charcoal prepared from the young wood is said
to be a valuable material for artists, as the marks made
by it in a first sketch can, if necessary, be effaced with
unusual facility.
"VYe sometimes see the Spindle-tree in summer entirely
denuded of its leaves, but clothed in their stead with a
dense cobweb-like material, which is the web spun by
the gregarious caterpillars of the pale-spotted Ermine
1 Euonymus Europeans. Nat. order, Ehamnacece ; Lin. syst. ;
Pintandria Monogynia. Gen. char.: Petals 5; capsule 5-cornered,
3-celled, 3-valved, coloured; seeds with an arillus. Spec. char..
Flower stalks compressed, 3-flowered ; flower usually tetran-
i'r."ui? ; leaves oblong, lanceolate, smooth.
126 OUR HEDGES.
Moth (Yponomeida euonymella), which attacks this in
common with several other hedge shrubs ; and a little
later in the season the little moths themselves pretty
spotted grey creatures may bo seen flitting about in
myriads over the scene of their devastations.
The pretty fruit, notwithstanding its exterior loveli-
ness, haa an actively poisonous nature, producing, if
swallowed, violent vomiting and other disagreeable
symptoms.
Although we generally meet with the Spindle-tree in
the form of a hedge shrub, it occasionally expands into
a good-sized tree, specimens having been found upwards
of thirty feet in height.
A variety of the Spindle-tree is sometimes seen,
having the capsules or berries pure white, and Avhen
these open, showing the strongly contrasting orange
seeds, their effect is exceedingly pretty.
THE ELDER. 1 (SamMcus nigra,}
THIS thoroughly domesticated tree, though often found
apparently wild in hedges and woods, seldom wanders
far from human habitations, where its presence is gene-
rally welcome not only from its picturesque aspect,
when enriched by its luxuriant cream-coloured flower-
heads at midsummer, or again, by its profuse purple-
black berries in autumn, but as ministering to rural
comfort and conviviality in the well-known wine con-
cocted from its berries, and on whose virtues, such as
they may be, it is needless here to descant.
At no very distant period of time, the leaves, berries,
flowers, and bark of the Elder, were, in some shape or
1 Sambucu-s niyra. Kat. order, Caprifoliaccce ; Lin. syst. :
Pcntandria Triyynia. Gen. char. : Corolla 5-cleft ; berry with
3 seeds. Spec. char. : Cymes 5-parted ; stem arborescent.
WILD ROSES.
127
other, pressed into the service of the rustic apothecary
and herbalist physician, but nearly all of its prepara-
tions have disappeared from the
modern pharmacopoeia.
The flowers when dried have
an agreeable odour, and a fragrant
water distilled from them forms a
pleasantly refreshing lotion for
the skin ; and an infusion made
by pouring boiling water on the
flowers, may be taken medici-
nally as a powerful diaphoretic,
or, in simpler language, to cause
a copious perspiration.
The old wood of the Elder is
extremely hard, and may be
used generally for the same pur-
poses as boxwood, which, it much ^m*.
resembles in texture and colour.
The young shoots are filled with a soft pith, which,
from its extreme lightness, is used in making the balls
employed in electrical experiments.
Varieties of the Elder are occasionally met with,
bearing fruit which when ripe is either white, or of a
bright green colour, instead of the usual rich purplish-
black.
WILD EOSES.
So numerous are our native Wild Eoses, that we cannot
attempt, in our present limited space, to particularize
every species, of which, there are about twenty recog-
nised by botanists, though their distinctive characters
depend for the most part on minute differences of struc-
ture, hardly appreciable by any but a botanical eye.
128 OUR HEDGES.
On Plate H we have figured four of the commoner
and more distinct forms of Wild Rose fruits, -which
make so conspicuous an appearance in our hedges in
the latter part of the year, and -which bear, among
country people, the general appellation of " hips. "
Figure 6 (Plate H) is the globular bright-red fruit of
the WHITE DOG-ROSE (Jlosa arvensis 1 ), a very abundant
species throughout the country, bearing profuse milk-
white flowers, on purple foot-stalks.
Figure 7 represents the flask-shaped scarlet fruit of
the COMMON DOG-ROSE (Rosa canina 2 ), whose fair blush-
blossoms so exquisitely ornament and perfume the green
country lanes in summer.
Figure 8 is the somewhat egg-shaped fruit of the
delicious SWEET BRIAR (ftosa rubiginosa 3 ), the Eglan-
tine of the poets, not uncommonly found wild in
various parts of the country, and so -well known as a
favourite inmate of our gardens. In this species the
fragrance is not confined to the flowers, but extends to
the leaves, which are plentifully furnished with glands
containing the perfumed essence.
This glandular apparatus is still further developed
in the WOOLLY-LEAVED ROSE (Rosa tomentdsa 4 ), and
several allied species or varieties, in which nearly the
whole plant is covered with glandular hairs, which
exhale a powerful balsamic, or resinous odour. The
Woolly-leaved Rose is a beautiful species, principally
found in mountainous districts ; and its flowers are
large and of a much deeper red than those of the
common Wild Roses.
1 Rosa arvensis. Nat. order, Rosacece ; Lin. syst. : Icosandria
Polygynia. Gen. char. : Calyx xirceolate, 5-cleft, fleshy, con-
tracted at orifice; petals 5; grains bony, hairy, included in the
fleshy tube of calyx. Spec. char. : Root shoots flagelliform ;
prickles unequal, falcate ; leaflets glaucous beneath.
2 Rosa canina. Gen. char, as above. Spec. char. : Leaflets
rigid, ovate ; ovaries 50-60.
3 Rosa ruMfjinosa. Gen. char, as above. Spec. char. : Prickles
hooked; leaflets rugose, opaque ; calyx and peduncles hispid.
4 Rosa tomentosa. Gen. char, as above. Spec. char. : Leaflets
ovate, nearly acute : fruit hispid or naked.
WILD ROSKS. 129
Figure 9 represents its fruit, which is covered with
the gland-bearing hairs, and has a deep purplish-red
colour
The fruits of the Wild-roses in general, hut princi-
pally of the Dog-rose, are used in making the preparation
sold hy druggists as " conserve of hips." This has a
pleasant flavour and acid taste, but is chiefly employed
as a vehicle for more powerful medicines. It is made
by taking a quantity of hips when over-ripe and mel-
lowed by frost, removing the hairy seeds from the inside,
and beating up the sweet pulpy matter in a mortar
with sugar.
Several interesting insects are connected with the
Hose, both in a wild and cultivated state. Those beau-
tiful productions, looking like tufts of crimson moss,
and so often found on the young branches and leaf-
stalks of Wild-roses, are caused by the puncture of
small winged insects, similar to those that produce the
galls of the oak ; and if one be cut open, towards the
autumn, the central part will be found to be composed of
cells, each tenanted by a small white grub. These galls
were formerly much used in medicine, under the name
of " Bedeguar," but their reputation is now quite
obsolete.
We sometimes see Rose-leaves, with circular spaces,
appearing as if round pieces had been punched out of their
edges. These are the work of that insect upholsterer,
the Leaf-cutter Bee, who uses the pieces she cuts from
the leaves as a lining for the tubular cells she excavates
in the ground. The modus operandi of this insect is
extremely curious and interesting, and we regret that
we have not space to give a detailed account of it.
OUR HEDGES.
THE WOODBINE, OR COMMON HONEY-
SUCKLE. 1 (Lonic-era Periclymenum.)
THE Woodbine, whose beauty and fragrance associate it
in our mind with the wild-roses its frequent com-
panions in our native hedge-rows is so familiar an
object that its charms require no description. Every
one loves the maiden fairness and rich perfume of its
blossoms, and knows the closely twining nature of the
plant : how
" "With clasping tendrils it invests the branch,
Else unadorned, with many a gay festoon
And fragrant chaplet ; recompensing well
The strength it borrows with the grace it lends."
In the autumn and early winter the berries, repre-
sented on Plate H, fig. 4, become very ornamental.
When quite ripe they are of a bright transparent
cornelian red, but before that assume successively
various tints of green, yellow, and orange.
In the Woodbine is seen an exemplification of that
curious natural law that governs the movement of
twining plants, in obedience to which the sterns and
tendrils of each species constantly twine in the same
direction. The Woodbine, for instance, always twines
from left to right, and the white convolvulus, or bind-
weed, does the same ; while the black briony, an
equally common plant, takes the opposite direction,
twining from right to left.
The caterpillar of that elegant Butterfly called the
White Admiral (Limenitis Camilla), feeds upon the
leaves of the Honeysuckle.
1 Lonicera Peridymcnum.. Nat. order, Caprifoliacex ; Lin.
syst. : Pcntandria Monoyj/nia. Gen. char. : Calyx 4-5-toothed,
or entire ; tube of corolla long, with a 5-cleft, regular, or two-
lipped limb ; stamens length of corolla; stigma globose; berry
distinct, 3-cellcd, many-seeded. Spec. char. : Flowers capitate,
terminal j leaves deciduous, all distinct.
WILD CURRANTS AND GOOSEBERRIES. 131
THE PEKFOLIATE HONEYSUCKLE
(Lonicera Caprif6lium)
MAY be known from the common species by the very
distinct character of the leaves, the opposite pairs of
which meet, and are conjoined so as to give an appear-
ance of the stem passing through the centre of an oval
leaf technically speaking, the leaves are perfoliate.
This species is a doubtful native of Britain, and it is
supposed that the occasional specimens found in woods
and hedges are the produce of seeds brought thitln-r
from gardens by birds.
The fruit, to which the " perfoliate " leaves form a
sort of dish, is represented on Plate H, fig. 3.
WILD CURRANTS AND GOOSEBERRIES.
(GENUS Ribes.}
WILDING representatives of the lied and Black Currants,
and of the rough and smooth Gooseberries of our gardens
are frequently met with in various parts of the country,
llic Wild Gooseberry being by far the most common.
Tig. 4, Plate G, represents the fruit of the rough Y\'ild
Gooseberry.
Several varied forms of the Red Currant have been
found in mountainous woods, chiefly in the north of
England, and have been looked on by some botanists
as distinct species ; but all of the above plants may be
readily recognised, especially when in fruit, by their
great resemblance to their brethren of the garden.
1 Lonicera, Capri folium. Gen. char, as above. Spec. thar. :
Flowers whorled. terminal; leaves deciduous, the upper perfoliate.
K 2
132 OUU HEDGES.
The botanical name of the Red Currant 1 is Mbes
rubrum ; of the Black Currant, 2 Rlbes nlgrum ; and of
the Gooseberry, 3 Rihes Grossuldria.
THE PRIVET. 4 (Ligtistrum vnlgdrc.)
(Plate H, Fig. 5.)
THIS pretty, myrtle-like under-shrub is found commonly
in almost every part of the country, besides being ex-
tensively cultivated as an artificial hedge-plant, in which
capacity it is excelled by few plants. It will thrive in
the air of the most densely populated city ; and there
are abundant instances of its smoke-enduring qualities
in the gardens and yards of the metropolis.
The clustered white flowers of the Privet appear about
midsummer, and are very ornamental, possessing also
an agreeable fragrance.
The rich masses of purple-black berries ripen in
autumn, and continue to decorate the shrub during a
great part of the winter, forming an attractive food for
thrushes, blackbirds, finches, and other birds. An oil
of good quality for burning in lamps may be obtained
1 Kibes rubrum. Nat. order, Grossulariacece ; Lin. syst. : Pen-
tandria monoyynia. Gen char. : Petals 5, and stamens inserted
into the calyx ; style bifid ; berry, many-seeded inferior. Spec.
char. : Berries smooth ; flowers flattish ; petals obcordate ; leaves
obtuse, 5-lobed ; stem erect.
2 Ribes nigrum. Gen. char, as above. Spec. char. : Leaves
dotted beneath ; racemes hairy, loose ; flowers campanulate ;
bractes shorter than flower stalks ; peduncles simple at base.
3 Ribes Grosmlaria. Gen. char, as above. Spec. char. : Leaf
stalks hairy ; peduncles one-flowered ; bractes 2.
4 Liyustrum vulgdre. Nat. order, Oleacece ; Lin. syst. : Dlan-
dria Monogynia. Gen. char. : Corolla 4-cleft ; berry 4-seeded. -
Spec. char. : Leaves ellipt, lanceolate, smooth ; racemes com-
pound, dense.
THE BUTCHER'S BROOM. 133
from these berries by bruising and submitting them to
strong pressure. There are varieties of the Privet in
cultivation, whose fruit when ripe is of a yellow, white,
or green colour ; and these, especially when contrasted
with the ordinary kind, produce a very agreeable effect
in the ornamental shrubbery.
To the entomologist the Privet is chiefly interesting
as being the chief food of the caterpillar of that very
beautiful insect the Privet HawkMoth(5p/iin;rZi<7UsJri). 1
The caterpillar not at all uncommon among Privet-
bushes is a fine massive creature, exquisitely tinted
with stripes of pink and white on a beautiful grass-
green ground ; and the moth into which he eventually
is transformed, after passing through an underground
existence, as a motionless dark-brown chrysalis, is a
richly-coloured insect, the upper wings being variously
shaded with brown and black, and the lower wings
having a fine _ rose-red tint barred with black, a similar
colouring extending over the body of the creature.
THE BUTCHEPt'S BEOOM. 2 (Ruscus aculedtus.)
(Plate H, Fig. 1.)
BOTAXICALLY speaking, the Butcher's Broom is only a
half-shrubby plant, but it has so much of the aspect
and character of a shrub, and is at the same tune so
curious and ornamental a plant, that Ave are induced to
include it in our list.
1 Both the perfect insect and caterpillar are figured in
" Common Objects of the Country." Plate A, fig. 5.
2 Ruscus aculeatus. Nat. order, A sphodelece ; Lin. syst. :
Dicecia Monadelphia. Gen. char. : Calyx 6-leaved ; corolla j
male, rudiment of ovary ovate, perforated at end ; female, style
1, berry 3-celled, seeds 2. Spec, char.: Leaves mncrouate, pun-
gent, flower-bearing on the upper side and naked.
134 OUR HEDGES.
The most remarkable feature in tlie natural history
of the Butcher's Broom is the peculiar situation occupied
by the flower, the footstalk of which is buried under
the outer coat of the leaf, so that it presents the unusual
phenomenon of a flower growing out of the surface of
the leaf. The flowers are small and of yellowish green
colour, and the fertile ones are succeeded by large red
berries, the size of small cherries, of sweet and not dis-
agreeable taste, . but of doubtful wholesomeness. The
appearance of these comparatively large and richly-
coloured fruits among the evergreen foliage of the plant
is extremely pretty and curious.
The prickly branches were formerly used by butchers
for sweeping their block, from which circumstance is
derived the common English name of the plant.
APPENDIX.
THE following classified list of British Icpidopterous insects,
whose caterpillars feed on the various trees and shrubs under
which they are ranged, has been compiled from various authentic
sources, including our own observations, and may, it is hoped,
possess some interest for those readers who are attached to the
pleasant pursuit of entomology ; while at the same time we do
not consider its introduction ia foreign to the more immediate
subject of this little work, since (as we have remarked in the
preface) the histories of many insects are closely interwoven
with those of the plants they subsist on. x
The names of the plants in this list are alphabetically arranged,
for more convenient reference.
ALDER.
Lime hawk moth Smerinthus tiliae.
Lobster m Stauropus fagi.
Puss m Oerura vinula.
Miller m Apatela leporina.
Iron prominent m Notodonta dromedariu,;.
Alder m Acronycta alni.
Dagger m Acronycta psi.
Scolloped hazel in Odontoptera bidentata.
Coxcomb prominent in Lophopteryx camelina.
Canary shouldered thorn in Geometra tiliaria.
Geometra ulniaria.
Vapourerm Orgyia antiqua.
Gold-tailed m Porthesia chrysorrhea.
Birch mocha m Ephyra pendularia.
Blue bordered carpet in Zerena ru'./iginata.
Pebble hook tip Drepana falcataria.
Silver lines m Hylophila quercana.
APPLE.
Wood leopard moth Zeuzera aesculi.
Emperor m Saturnia pavonia minor.
Black arches m Psilura monacha.
Short cloaked m Nola cncullatella.
Codling m Carpocapsa pomanella.
Broun gold m Acompsia unitella.
Common ermine m Yponomeuta padella.
Roeselian m Glyphipteryx roesella.
Chequered hook tip m Harpipteryx asperella.
136
APPENDIX.
ASH.
Privet hawk moth , Sphinx ligustri.
Wood leopard m Zeuzera aesculi.
Scarlet tiger m Heraclia dominula.
Red arches m Miltochrysta miniata.
Common footman m Lithosia complana.
Clifton nonpareil m Catocala fraxini.
Green silver lines m Hylophila prasinana.
BARBERRY.
Raspberry carpet moth Anticlea berberata.
Scarce tissue m Triphosa cervinata.
Barberry pug m Eupithecia exiguata.
BEECH.
Wood leopard moth Zeuzera a-sculi.
Lobster m Stauropus fagi.
Iron prominent m Notodonta dromedarius.
Coxcomb prominent m Lophopteryx camelina.
Sprawlcr m Petasia cassinea.
Kentish glory m Endromis versicolor.
Tau emperor m Aglaia tau.
Black muslin m Penthophera nigricans.
Common quakerm Orthosia stabilis.
Scarce dagger m Acronycta auricoma.
Dagger m Acronycta psi.
Marvel du jour m Miselia aprilina.
Clifton nonpariel m Catocaia fraxini.
Mottled umber m Hyhernia defoliania,
October m Himera pennaria.
Great oak beauty m Alcis roboraria.
Dark bordered beauty m Epione Vespertaria.
Captain Blomer's rivulet m Emmelesia Blomeri.
Barred hook tip m Drepana unguicula.
Prominent m Lobophora hexapterata.
Goose feather m Porrectaria anatipennella.
Green silver-lines m Hylophila prasinaria.
BILBERRY See WHORTLEBERRY.
BIRCH.
Camberwell beauty butterfly Vanessa Antiopa.
Brown hair streak b Thecla betulae.
Lime hawk moth Smerinthus tilise.
Black and white horned clear wing m. yEgeria sphegiformis.
Wood leopard m Zeuzera sesculi.
Swallow prominent m Leiocampa dictoea.
Coxcomb prominent m Lophopteryx camelina.
February prominent m Lophopteryx carmelita.
Lunar marbled brown m Drymonia chaonia.
Feathered prominent m Ptilophora phimigera.
irifo, ,,.!,- (Cerura bicuspis.
Kitten moths XCerura fuscinula.
Kentish glory m Endromis versicolor.
Small egger m Eriogaster lanestris.
Red arches m Callimorpha miniata.
Black arches m Psilura monacha.
Large footman m Lithosia quadra.
Nut tree tussock m Demas coryli.
Red arches in. Miltochrysta miniata.
APPENDIX. 137
Blossom umterwiug m Orthosia minosa.
Brown spot pinion m Orthosia litura.
Miller m Apatela leporine.
Scarce marvel du-jour m Diphthera Orion.
Satin carpet m. . Ceratopacha fluctuosa.
Yellow horned m Ceratopacha fiavicornis.
Dun bar m Cosmia trapezina.
Angle-striped sallow m Cosmia fulvago.
Sallow m Xanthia fulvago.
Light orange underwing m Brepha notha.
Dotted border m Hybernia capreolaria.
Scarce umberm Hybernia prosapiaria.
Mottled umber m Hybernia defoliaria.
Oak beauty m Biston proclromarius.
Peppered m Biston betularius.
Large emerald m Hipparchus papilionarius.
Dark mottled beauty m Alcis muraria.
Gray birch m Tephrosia punctularia.
Common wave m Cabera exanthemata.
Birch mocha m Ephyra penduiaria.
Argent and sable m Melanippe hastata.
May high-flyer m Euthalia impluviata.
Dingy shell m Emmelesia heparata.
Scallop hook tip m Platypteryx lacertinaria.
Pebble hook tip m Drepana falcataria.
Oak hook tip m Drepana hamula.
Common fan-foot m Pechipogon barbalis.
Hazel tortrix m Lozotcenia sorbiana.
Great chequered m Lozotcenia corylana.
Lesser long cloak m Antithesea pruniana.
Hoary double crescent m Philalcea bilunaria.
Acrolepia betuletella.
Red barred gold m Eriocephala rubrifasciella.
BIRD CHERRY.
Pale spotted ermine moth Yponomeuta euonymella.
BLACKTHORN.
Small egger moth Eriogaster lanestris.
Lobster m Stauropus fagi.
Figure of 8 m Disphragis coaruleocephala.
Green brindled dot m Valeria oleagina.
Dark dagger m Acronycta tridens.
Streaked dagger m Acronycta stri<{osa.
Magpie m Abraxas grossulariata.
Brimstone m Rumia crataegata.
Barred hook tip m Drepana unguicula.
Chinese character m Silix compressa.
Lesser long cloak m Antithesis pruniana.
Clouded pearl m Margaritia prunalis.
BRAMBLE.
Green hair streak butterlly Thccla rubi.
Fox moth Lasiocampa rubi.
Black arches m Psilura monacha.
Chestnut m Glcca vaccinii.
Scarce dagger m Acronycta auricoma.
Bramble m Acronycta rumicis.
138
APPENDIX.
Peach blossom moth Thyatira batis.
White spot marbled m Erastria fuscula.
Autumn green carpet in Euthalia miat.i.
Common oblique bar in Lozotoenia ribeana.
Great hook tip in Lozotoenia aporana.
BUCKTHORN.
Scallop brown moth Scotosia vetulata.
Dark umber m Scotosia rhamnata.
Common tissue m Triphosa dubitata.
CHERRY.
Common quaker moth Orthosia stabilis.
CURRANT.
Currant clear wing moth Trochilium tipuliforme.
Large ranunculus m Polia flavocincta.
Clouded carpet m Steganolophia prunata.
Chevron m Electra testata
Magpie m Abraxas grossulariata.
Common oblique bnr m Lozotania ribeana.
Gooseberry m Lozotoenia grossulareana.
Treble spotted black m Lampronia capitella.
DEWBERRY.
Scarce dagger moth Acronycta nuricoraa.
Dark annulet m Charissa obscuraria.
ELDER.
Death's head moth Acherontia Atropos.
Privet hawk in Sphinx ligustri.
Dog's tooth m Miiineotria suasa.
Garden China mark m Phlyctcenia sambucalis.
Captain Blomer's rivulet m Kmmelesia Blomeri.
Marble single dot m ; Steganoptycha unipunctana.
ELM.
Comma butterfly Grapta comma.
Elm butterfly Vanessa polyehloros.
Lime hawk moth Smerinthus tiliae.
Wood leopard m Zeuzera sesculi.
Goat m Cossus ligniperda.
Buff tip m Hammatophora bucephala.
Gipsy m Porthetria dispar.
Common quaker m Orthosia stabilis.
Copper underwing m Amphipyra pyramid ia.
Coxcomb prominent m Lophopteryx camelina.
Double-spot brocade m Miselia bimaculosa.
Miller m Apatela leporina.
White-spotted pinion m Cosmia diffinis.
Gold-tail m Porthesia chrysorrhca.
Lesser spotted pinion m Cosmia affinis.
Brown tailed m Porthesia chrysorrhea.
Brick coloured m Orbona ferruginea.
Clifton nonpareil m Catocala fraxini.
Small brindled beauty m Nyssia hispidaria.
APPENDIX. 139
Peppered moth Biston betularius.
Brindled beauty m Biston hirtarius.
Scalloped oak m Crocallis elinguaria.
Scarce magpie m Abraxas ulmata.
November m Oporabia dilutata.
Black-eyed marble m Spilonota nigricostara.
Marbled single dot m Steganoptycha unipunctana.
White treble spot m Acleris cerusana.
Autumnal m Argyromiges autumnella.
White-spotted black m Lampronia melanella.
FURZE.
Transparent chimney-sweep moth ... Fumea radiella.
Marbled single dot m Steganoptycha unipunctana.
Light-striped edge m Carpocapsaulicetana.
llobertsonian m Macrochila Robertsonella.
GOOSEBERRY.
Clouded carpetmoth Steganolophia pn::..ita.
Chevron m Electra testata.
Common oblique back in Lozotoenia ribeana.
Gooseberry m Lozotcenia grossulareana.
HAZEL.
Comma butterfly Grapta comma.
Wood leopard moth Zeuzera cesculi.
Lobster m Staurophus fagi.
Iron prominent m Xotodonta dromedariui.
Lunar marbled brown in Dymonia Chaonia.
Kentish glory m Endromis versicolor.
Tau emperor m Aglaia tau.
Brown muslin m Psyche fusca.
Dun bar m Cosmia trapezina.
Nut tree tussock ni Demas coryli.
Light orange underwingm Brepha notha.
Copper underwing m Amphipyra pyramidia.
Large emerald m Hipparchus papilionarius
Dark bordered beauty m Epione vespertaria.
Common white wave m Cabera pusaria.
May high-flyer m F.uthalia impluviata.
Broken barred carpet in Harpalyce corylata.
Dark oblique bar m Lozotoenia heparana.
Hollow oblique bar m Lozotoenia cerasana.
Great chequered m Lozotoenia corylana.
Arched m Roxana arcuana.
Hazel m Semioscopis avellanel';3.
HEATH.
Emperor moth Saturnia pavonia minor.
Great eggerm Lasiocampa Roboris.
Transparent chimney-sweep m i'uinea radiella.
True lover's knot m Lycophotia porphyrea.
Beautiful underwing m Anarta myrtilli.
Alternate barred m Sericoris alternanr..
Half brown m Poecilochroma semifuscana
Dingy rose m Cochylis subroseana.
Anacampsis ericrc.
140
APPENDIX.
HONEYSUCKLE.
Broad bordered bee hawk moth Sesia fucifcrmis.
Black chestnut in Gloea subnigra.
Spring carpet m Lobopliora polycommata.
Early toothed stripe in Lobophora lobulata.
Forked red bar m Lozolocnia xylosteana.
Tooth streaked hook tip m Harpipteryx dentella.
Six cleft plume m Alucita hexadactyla.
HORNBEAM.
Scarce umber moth Hybernia prosnpiaria.
October m Himera pennada.
Flounced thorn m Geometra carpiniaria.
Light emerald m Campcea margaritata.
Little emerald m Chloris.'a putataria.
Cream short cloaked m Spilonota comitana.
HORSE CHESTNUT.
Wood leopard moth Zeuzera sesculi.
Large footman m CEnistis quadra.
Sycamore m Apatela acc-ris.
March m Anisopteryx jescularia.
IVY.
Pale headed chestnut moth Orthosia pistacina.
Lunar underwing m Orthosia liumilis.
Tawny pinion m Xylina semibrunnea.
Sallow in Xanthia fulvago.
Flounced rustic m Orbona rufina.
JUNIPER.
Juniper carpet moth Thera juniperata (and others
of same genus).
Juniper pug m Eupithecia laevigata.
White bordered m Macrochila marginella.
Juniper m Anacampsis juniperella.
LIME.
Lime hawk moth Smerintlius tiliae.
Wood leopard m Zeuzera aesculi.
Buff tip m Pygoera bucephala.
Lobster m Stauropus fagi.
Coxcomb prominent m Lophoptcryx camelina.
Sprawler in Petasia cassinea.
Kentish glory m Endromis versicolor.
Small egger m Eriogaster lanestris.
Gipsy m Hypogymna dispar.
Black V m Leucoma vau-nigrum.
Common quaker m Orthosia stabilis.
Pale pinion m Xylina petrificata.
Marvel du jour m Miselia aprilina.
Daggerm Acronycta psi.
Dun bar m Cosmia trapezina.
Orangem Xanthia citrago.
Mottled umber m Hybernia defoliaria.
Oak beauty m Biston prodromarius.
Brindled beauty m Biston hirtarius.
APPiCXDIX. 141
Canary shouldered thorn moth Geometra tiliaria.
Clouded August thorn m Geometra angularia.
Plain August thorn m Geometra quercinaria. '
Flounced thorn m Geometra carpiniaria.
Swallow-tail m Ourapteryx sambucaria.
Large emerald moth Hipparchus papilionarius.
Scorched wing m Eurymene dolabraria.
November dagger m Diurena Novembris.
Linnaean m Glyphipteryx Linnaeella.
MAPLE.
Maple prominent moth Lophopteryx cucullina.
Feathered prominent m Ptilophora plumigera.
Sycamore m Apatela aceris.
Mocha m Ephyra omicronaria.
MOUNTAIN ASH.
Streaked dagger moth Acronycta strigosa.
Brimstone m.... Rumia cratzegata.
Light emerald m Campoea margaritata.
OAK.
Purple hair streak butterfly Thecla quercfis.
Lime hawk moth Smerinthus tiliee.
Golden-tail clearwing m Trochilium cynipiforrae.
Oak egger in Lasiocampa roboris.
Buff tip m Hammatophora bucephala.
Iron prominent m Notodonta dromedarius.
Coxcomb prominent m Lophopteryx camelina.
Sprawler m Petasia cassinia.
Great prominent m Petasia trepida.
Marbled brown m Drymonia dodonea.
Lunar marbled brown m Drymonia chaonia.
Kitten m Cerura fuscinula.
Small oak egger m Limacodes testudo.
Brown muslin m Psyche fusca.
Gipsy m Porthetria dispar.
Red arches m Miltochrysta miniata.
Common footman m Lithosia complana.
Large footman m ffinistis quadra.
Clouded drab m Orthosia instabilis.
Lead coloured drab m Orthosia gracilis.
Twice-spotted quaker m Orthosia munda.
Common quaker m Orthosia stabilis.
Blossom underwing m Orthosia minosa.
Copper underwing m Amphipyra pyramidia.
Grey shouldered knot m Xylina lambda.
Brindled green m Hadena protea.
Scarce marvel-du-jour m Diphthera orion.
Lesser lutestring m Ceratopacha diluta.
Yellow horned m Ceratopacha flavicornis.
Frosted green m Ceratopacha ridens.
Scallop winged oak in Cleoceris oo.
Dunbar m Cosmia trapezina.
Orange upperwing m Xantholeuca croceago.
Flounced rustic m Orbona rufina.
Brick coloured m Orbona ferruginea.
Dark crimson underwing m Catocala sponsa.
Light crimson underwing m Catocala promissa.
Light orange underwing m. , Brepha notha.
142
Dotted border moth Hybernia capreolaria.
Scarce timber m Hybernia prosapiaria.
Mottled umber m Hybernia defoiiaria.
Pale brindled brown m Phigalia pilosaria.
Oak beauty m Biston piodomarius.
Peppered m Biston betularius.
October m Himera pennaria.
Scalloped oak m Crocallis elinguaria.
Flounced thorn m Geometra carpiniaria.
Karly thorn m Geometra il I un aria.
Purple thorn m Geometra illustraria.
Small emerald in Hemithea vernaria.
Great oak beauty m Alcis roboraria.
False mocha m Ephyra punctaria.
Scorched wing m Eurymene dolaliraria.
November in Oporabia dilutata.
Common emerald m Chlorissa thymiaria.
Pebble hook tipm Drepana i'alcataria.
Oak hook tip m Drepana haniuln.
Barred hook tip m Drepana unquicnla.
Common fan foot m Pechipogon barbali?.
Olive crescent m j^Jthia emortualis.
Least black arches m Nola strisulalis.
Green silver lines m Hylophila prasinana.
Scarce silverlines m Hylophila quercana.
Hazel tortius m Lozotcenia sorbiana.
Dark oblique bar in Lozotoenia heparana.
Hollow oblique bar m Lozotcenia cerasana.
Forked red bar m Lozotoonia xylosteana.
Oak red bar m Lozotoenia robcrana.
Ashy silver barred m Psoudotomia fratei :i:nia.
Green tufted m Leplogramma squamana.
Pale chequered m Oporinia tortricella.
Cramerian in Argyromiges Cramerella.
Thunberg's m Gracillaria Thunb'-'rgclla.
PEAR.
Wood leopard moth Zeuzera jcsculi.
Short cloaked m Nola cucull;:tella.
Brown gold m Acompsia unitella.
Whitethorn barm Telea cratiegella.
PINE AND FIR.
Pine hawk moth Sphinx pinastri.
Black arches in i'sihira mouacha.
Orange footman m Lithosia aureola.
Common foo'.man in Lithosia complana.
Large footman in CEnistis quadra.
Barred red m Ellopia fasciaria.
Grey carpet m Thera variata (and others of
the same genus).
(Genus) Achatia.
Light silver striped m Pseudotomia strobilella.
Scarce orange spoiled m Orthotccnia gcminana.
Orange spotted m Orthotcenia turioneila.
Spotted pine in Orthotcenia resinella.
Streaked pine m Orthotoenia comitana.
Scarce ermine m Anesychia dodocea.
Large gray in liudorea cembrella.
APPENDIX. 143
Resin gray moth Eudocea resinea.
Brown knot horn m Phycita fusca.
PLUM.
Copper undenting moth Amphipyra pyramidia.
Dark dagger m Acronycta tridens.
F.arly in Cheimatobia rupicapraria.
AVainscot hook tip m Havpipteryx scabrella.
POPLAR.
CamberweTl beauty butterfly Vanessa Antiopa.
poplar hawk moth Smerinthus Populi.
Kyed hawk m Smerinthus ocellatus.
Hornet m Trochilium apiforme.
Clear underwing m JEgeria asiliformis.
Goat m Cossus ligniperda.
Iron prominent m Notodonta dromedarius.
Pebble prominent m Notorionta zig zac.
Swallow prominent m Leiocampa dictosa.
Coxcomb prominent m Lophopteryx camelina.
Pale prominent m Pterostoma palpina.
Dusky marbled brown m Gluphisia crenata.
Puss m Cerura vinula.
Kitten moths.
egr
Ermine puss m Cerura erminea.
Plain muslin m lleterogenea asellus.
Common footman m Lithosia complana
Dingy shears m Orthosia upsiloii.
Copper underwing m Amphipyra pyramidia.
Cliisteracurtiila (and others of
genus).
Poplar green m,..., Acronyctamegacephala.
Bramble m Acronycta rumicis.
Dagger m Acronycta Psi.
Herald m Scoliopteryx libatrix.
Poplar lutestring m Ceratopacha Or.
Figure of 60 m Ceratopat-ha octogesima.
Yellow horned m Ceratopacha flavicornis.
Olive m Plastenis subtusa.
Clii'ton nonpareil in Catocala fraxini.
Orange undenving m Brepha Parthenias.
March dagger m Diurene fagella.
Pale oak beauty in Alcis consortaria.
Poplar in Electra populata.
Small Thccnix m Harpalyce silaceata.
Pebble hook tip m Dri-pana falcataria.
Gold fringe m Ilypsopygia costalis.
Cream spotted sable m Microsetia trimaculella.
Agaric m , Euplocamus mediellus.
((jciuis) Harpagus.
Poplar slender m Gi-acillaria prfeangusta.
PRIVET.
Privet hawk moth Sphinx ligustri.
Coronrt m Acronycta ligustri.
lirindled beauty m lii- Sun liirtarius.
1 44 APPENDIX.
Lilac beauty moth .......................... Pericallia syringaria.
Brindled-barred yellow in ................ Lobophora viretata.
Rosy flounced m ............................ Agrotera ilammealis.
RASPBERRY.
Chalk carpet moth ........................ Zerene procellata.
Rose tortrix ra ............................... Lozotcenia nebulana.
Great brown m ............................. Lozotcenia rosana.
WILD ROSE.
Shoulder stripe moth ..................... Lampropteryx badiata.
Streamer m .................................. Anticlea derivata.
Oblique barm ............................... Lozotcenia laevigana.
Rose tortrix m ............................... Lozotoenia nebulana.
Great hook tipm ............................ Lozotoenia oporana.
Great brown m ............................. Lozotoenia rosana.
Brown cloaked m .......................... Spilonota aquana.
The Bergmannian m ..................... Argyrotoza Bergmannana.
SPINDLE.
Death's head moth ........................ Acherontia Atropos.
Scorched carpet m ........................ Zerene adustata.
Pale-spotted ermine m ................... Yponomeuta euonymella.
SYCAMORE.
Buff tip moth ............................... Pygoera bueephala.
Sycamore m ................................. Apatela aceris.
WALNUT.
Wood leopard moth ....................... Zeuzera sesculi.
Peppered m .................................. Biston betularius.
WHITETHORN.
Small egger moth ......................... Eriogaster lanestris.
Lappet m ...................................... Gastropacha quercifolia.
Figure of 8 m ............................... Disphragis cceruleocephala.
Brown muslin m ............................ &SSS^L
Miselia oxyaeantha?.
Porthesia chrysorrhoea.
Darkdaggerm ............................... Acronycta tridens.
Pale brindled beauty m ................. Phigalis pilosaria.
Lunar thorn m ............................... Geometra lunaria.
Brimstone m ................................ Rumia crataegata.
Barred straw m ............................. Electra pyraliata.
Pinion spotted pug m .................... Eupithecia consignata.
Common emerald in ...................... Chlorissa thymiaria.
Crimson and gold m ...................... Pyrausta purpuralis.
Hazel barred m ............................ Lozotcenia crat;egana.
Common ermine m ......................... Yponomeuta padella.
Whitethorn bar m ......................... Telea cratasgella.
Lesser tawny crescent m ................ Batis lunaris.
Varied knot horn m ....................... Phycita hostilis.
Feathered twin spot m ................... Incurvaria pectinella.
Bed-barred gold m ........................ Eriocephala rubrifasciella.
APPENDIX. 145
WHORTLEBERRY.
Chestnut moth Gloea vaccinii.
Beautiful yellow underwing m Avarta myrtilli.
Little thorn m Epione advenaria.
Bilberry m Suricoris myrtillana.
WILLOW.
Cambenvell beauty moth Vanessa Antiopa.
Elm or large tortoiseshell butterfly ... Vanessa polychlorcs.
Comma b Grapta comma.
Poplar hawk moth Smerinthus populi.
Eyed hawk m Smerinthus ocellatus.
Goat m Cossus ligniperda.
Emperorm _ Saturniajaavcinia-mnior.
Lappet m '. Gastropacha quercifulia.
Pebble prominent m Notodonta zig zac.
Swallow prominent m Leiocampa dictoea.
Coxcomb prominent m Lophopteryx camelina.
Pale prominent in Pterostoma palpina.
Small chocolate-tip m Clostera rcclusa.
Chocolate-tip m Clostera curtula.
!Cerurabicuspis.
Cerura furcula.
Cerura arcuata.
Cerura Integra.
Puss m Cerura vinula.
Brown muslin m Psyche fusca.
Scarlet tigerm Heraclia dominula.
Satin m Leucoma salicis.
Common quaker m Orthosia stabilis.
Brown spot pinion m Orthosia litura.
Powdered quaker m Orthosia sparsa.
Red line quaker m Orthosia lota.
Dingy shears m Orthosia upsilon.
Miller m Apatela leporii:a.
Poplar green m Acronycta megacepha'a.
Herald m Scoliopteryx libatrix.
Double kidney m Plastenis retusa.
Minor shoulder-knot m Cleoceris viminalis.
Barred sallow m Xanthia aurago.
White wave m Cabera pusaria.
Red underwing m Catccala nupta.
Orange underwing m Brepha parthenias.
Scalloped hazel m Odontopera bidentata.
Early thorn m Geometra illunaria.
Pale oak beauty m Alcis consortaria.
Striped twin spot m Cidaria snlicata.
Bordered beauty m Epione apiciaria.
Peacock m Macaria notata.
Lesser bellm Colobochyla salicalis.
Small green oak m Earis chlorana.
White backed m Antithesia salicella.
Dingy straw m Cleodora salicelltu
Brindled white back ermine m Ederesa curvella.
Cream spotted sable m Glyphipteryx Linnaeella.
(Genus) Harpagu?.
The above list refers to the Willows in general, but the ir.sects in
the following list are those found mere particularly on the
TV
146 APPENDIX.
GOAT WILLOW OR SALLOW.
Purple emperor butterfly Apatura Iris.
Lunar hornet sphinx moth Trochilium crahroniforme.
Gastropacha ilicil'olia.
Feathered prominqnt m Ptilophora plumigera.
Broad-barred kitten m Cerura latifascia.
Lead-coloured drab in Orthosia gracilis.
Twin-spotted quaker m Orthosia munda.
Small quaker m Orthosia cruda.
Early grey m Hadena lithorhiza.
Pink-barred sallow m Xanthia flavago.
Small seraphim in Lobophora scxalisata.
Pebble hook tip in Urepanafalcatam.
Refuse marble in Philalcea subocellann.
Short gold bar m Argyrosetia semifa^ciella.
INDEX TO PLATES.
A.
1. Common, or Peduncled Oak(Qiifr-
c/ts peduticttlata).
2. Sessile-fruited Oak (Quercus scs-
silifiora}.
3. Mistletoe (Viscum album}.
4. Holly (I/ex aquifolium).
B.
1. Hazel, with Nuts (Corylus Avel-
lana).
a. Female flower of ditto.
2. Blackthorn, or Sloe (Primus in-
sltilin).
b. Fruit of ditto.
3. Barberry (Berberis vttlgaris),
flowers and fruit.
4. Bird-Cherry (Prumts Padus),
flowers and fruit.
C.
1. AVhite-Beam Tree (Pyrus Aria),
flower and fruit.
2. Wild Service Tree (Pyrus tormi-
im/ia), leaf and fruit.
3. Mountain Ash (Pyrus Aucupcria),
leaf and fruit.
4. Guelder Rose (Viburnum Opitlus).
leaf and fruit.
D.
1. Bilberry (Vaccinium Myrt:llus),
flowers and fruit.
-. Bleaberry (Vaccinium uligiuo-
sum), flowers and fruit.
5. Common Juniper (Juniperus com-
munit).
4. Crowherry (Empelrum nigrum),
flowers and fruit.
3. Cowberry (I'acciHiumVitis-ldcea),
flowers and fruit.
<!. Cranberry (Oxycoccus paltutris).
E.
1. Common Bramble, or Hlaokbcrry
(Itulins frnticoaiis), flowers and
fruit.
2. Dewberry (Rubiis aesius), fruit.
3. Cloudbeiry(7l!/Jj Chamcemtrus),
flower and fruit.
4. Stone Bramble (Rubus saxatilis),
flowers and fruit.
1 . Sea Buckthorn ( Hippophae rliam-
noides), fruit.
2. Yew (Taxus baccata), fruit.
<i. Flowers.
3. Common Buckthorn (Rhamnus
catharticus), fruit.
b. Flowers.
4. IIawthorn(Crn/(^!^ Oxyacanlha],
flowers and fruit (haws).
G.
1. Spindle Tree (Euonymus Euro-
ptzus), fruit, some expanded,
showing seeds.
a. Flower.
2. Dogwood (Cornus sanguinca)
fruit.
3. Furze or Gorse ( Ulex Europeans).
4. Fruit of Wild Gooseberry (Ribes
Gronsularia).
5. Fruit of Arbutus, or Strawberry-
tree (Arbutus Vnedo).
fi. Fruit of V/ild Raspberry ( Rubus
Idceus).
H.
1. Butcher's Broom (Ruscus acule-
atus), flowers and fruit.
2. Bearberry (Arclostaphylos Uva-
Ursi), flowers and fruit.
3. Fruit of Perfoliate Honeysuckle
(Loniccra Caprijoliiim).
4. Fruit of Woodbine (Lonicera
Pcricli/menum).
5. Fruit of Privet (Ligustrum vul-
garc).
6. Fruit of White DoR-rose (Rosa
arvensis).
7. Fruit of Common Dog-rose (Rosa
canina).
S. Fruit of Sweet Briar (Rosa rtibi-
gitioxt).
9. Fruit of Woolly-leafed Rose (Rosa
lomentosa).
A
\
.it.MBDADY/1.
l J141iyfC.CZ*.
^jnSA4lTJlfr,
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