THE fl/)(lERICp BOTPIST. 



Vol. VI. BINGHAMTON, N. Y., JANUARY, 1904. No. 1. 



STONE-WALLS OF NEW ENGLAND. 



BY DR. WILLIAM WHITMAN BAILEY. 



IT would be quite possible to determine the region in 

 which one found himself by the character of the fences 

 or means of demarcation. In lower California, Arizona 

 and Mexico, one finds estates separated by close-growing 

 prickl3^ and impenetrable cactuses ; our central States 

 show the familiar zig-zag, snake or Virginia rail fence ; old 

 England is marked by it's verdant hedges of hawthorn ; 

 Mauritius by flaming palisades of scarlet Poinsettia ; Cey- 

 lon b3^ Lantanas, and our own New England by stone- 

 walls. We might perhaps add the cruel barbed wire fence 

 in Cuba. 



Our ancestors builded better than they knew. Their 

 primal purpose was to rid themselves of the superflous 

 stones left by the glacial drift. They thought little of the 

 festhetic. Otten the w^alls are loosely constructed, and they 

 may follow the trend of the land. Frequently they are 

 much broader than high. Their possible semi-ruinous con- 

 dition adds an excitement to the attempt to surmount 

 them and lends somewhat to their charm. The stones are 

 quite irregular in form, and Nature early incrusts them 

 with yellow and gray lichens. 



Often one finds either side of a wooded way bordered 

 by these primitive monuments to the god Terminus. All 

 sorts of plants like to nestle against them. Hard-hack 

 and meadow-sw^eet cluster at their bases. Sombre juni- 

 pers watch beside them like sentries; the woodbine, in 

 scarlet skirmish line, scrambles over the shones and places 

 its banner in triumph on the outer wall. Here, too, 

 grows the pretty and odorous ground-nut, scenting the 



