51 
D Hovember Hamble. 
BELIEVE it is a prevalent idea that in a late Autumn or 
Winter walk there is little or nothing to be found to interest 
or admire; this is a mistake, for there is no season of the year in 
which Dame Nature does not furnish us with somo object of 
attraction. As a true lover of Nature, finding fresh beauties in 
every wood, lane, and hedgerow, I am anxious to make others 
participators in my pleasure, and will ask them to accompany me 
in imagination in a lovely ramble which I have this day enjoyed 
with a friend. 
The neighbourhood of Wycombe abounds in charming walks of 
varied beauty,—hill, dale, and wood, forming scenery of no com- 
mon order; and our ramble of to-day is by no means the least 
beautiful among them. Passing through West Wycombe and 
under the hill, where the bright sun shining on the velvet sward 
and rich old yew trees formed a picture of exquisite beauty, we 
ascended the long hill leading to Wheeler End. In the lane we 
noticed many tufts of the Male Fern (Lastrea iliz-mas), and the 
gnarled roots of many of the trees overhanging the road, “ bearded 
with moss,” were decorated with thelovely golden-fruited Polypody 
(Polypodium vulgare); on the banks were the elegant Long-stalked 
Cranesbill (Geranium columbinum) and the Herb Robert (4. 
Robertianum) blossoming in great profusion, with here and there 
a root of the Soft Dovesfoot (G. molle). The Common at Wheeler 
End is fast losing all claim to the title, large portions of it being 
already enclosed; these encroachments on the ancient rights of 
the geese, donkeys, &c., are very painful to every lover of 
Nature, the commons being some of her richest treasuries. The 
Furze ( Ulex ewropeus) is here at all seasons more or less gaily in 
bloom. I was greatly amused on this Common in the Spring 
by the eccentric conduct of a pair of Blackcaps (Curruca atri- 
capilla), which followed us the whole time, scolding in the most 
Hq 
