56 THE FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



these were those of the cherry, damson, and blackthorn. 

 These fruits were evidently taken to assist in whiling away 

 the time at the baths, the great meeting-place of the citizens 

 and their wives and daughters, and one can only feel that 

 if our Roman predecessors could lunch off blackthorn 

 berries, it is one testimonial the more to their indomitable 

 pluck and perseverance. 



Not only do our hedges and woodlands yield us wild 

 plums, but apples, pears, and cherries no less. To describe 

 these at any length would appear unnecessary, as those 

 who know these fruits in their cultivated forms will find 

 no difficulty in recognising their wild prototypes. 



SPINDLE-TREE (Euonymus Europ^us) 



Though the Spindle tree during Spring and Summer 

 is an entirely inconspicuous shrub, it developes in the 

 Autumn into one of the most beautiful, its fruit in form 

 and colour being highly attractive, and its foliage of great 

 richness of tint. Growing as Nature would have it to grow, 

 it attains to a height of over twenty feet, but more 

 ordinarily in copse and hedge it is little more than a 

 bush. The greenish-white, four-petalled flowers expand in 

 May. The lance-shaped leaves grow in pairs. They have 

 their margins minutely notched, and are throughout the 

 Summer of a somewhat dull green, but in the Autumn 

 they change to a brilliant bronze-red or purple. We have 

 depicted the plant in its Autumn bravery in our illustration, 

 Plate X. 



The wood of the larger branches is hard and of fine 

 grain. It was originally much in demand for making 



