OCTOBER. 489 



Cranberry (V. Oxycoccos), berries dull red. 



Holly (Ilex aquifolium), berries scarlet. 



Privet (Ligustrum vulgar e), berries black. 



Woody Nightshade (Solarium Dulcamara), berries bright orange. 



Deadly Nightshade (Atropa Belladonna), berries black, poisonous. 



Common Mezereon (Daplme Idezereuni), berries red. 



Spurge-Laurel (D. Laureola], berries black. 



Crow-berry (Empetrum nlgruin), berries black. 



Juniper ^(Juniperus communis), berries at first green, gradually 



becoming bluish black. 

 Yew (Taxus baccata], drupes deep red. 



To these might be added the scarlet berries of the 

 Arum, very conspicuous beneath hedges in the autumn, 

 and long persistent if not destroyed. A fruit-like 

 appearance is well simulated too by those curious 

 Galls upon oak-leaves, which on their sunny side glow 

 with the brilliance of a strawberry or peach, and are 

 often very numerous at this season, sometimes two or 

 three clustered together. They are produced from 

 the agency of a little Gall-fly, a species of Cijnips. 



In a popular point of view the Hazel coppices 

 loaded with nuts have, in the autumnal season, a pe- 

 culiar and exciting interest, and, to those who have 

 ever lived in the country, the remembrance of nutting 

 excursions call up recollections teeming with delight. 

 The deep embowering shade, the crashing bough, the 

 brown clusters, and the joyous laugh that then was 

 from familiar faces now lost to the scene, flash upon 

 the mind like fiery sparks that beam in beauty for a 

 moment to be extinguished as quickly again. The 

 rustics enjoy a saturnalia here, for once ungrudged to 

 them, and their undisputed game clusters around 

 their torn and battered hats : 



" The woodland bowers that us'd to be 

 Lost in their silence and their shade, 



