FLOWERING FERN. 3 



being much preferred. The chief natural produce of the 

 blue sand is heath, of the three usual species, which are 

 very apt to be completely matted together with dodder. 

 The moors or wet places in this sandy waste produce im- 

 mense quantities of the beautiful little sundew, and many 

 of those plants which mark a boggy surface. The Devil's 

 Punch-bowl, one of the hollows of Hindhead, has long 

 been celebrated for its abundant crops of whortleberries 

 and the magnificence of its FLOWERING FERN, which here 

 grows to a height of four feet. 



Notwithstanding the general bareness of the surround- 

 ing country, a character common to all the western division 

 of the county, the hills in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 Godalming are completely covered with coppices, abound- 

 ing with trees in ah 1 stages of growth, so as to form an 

 excellent resort for the perching birds. In the under- 

 wood of these hills the shy hawfinch breeds annually, and 

 remains throughout the year; but the parent birds are 

 difficult to obtain, flying the instant they catch sight of a 

 gunner, although many hundred yards distant. 



The fir-trees on the higher grounds are frequently the 

 resort of whole troops of crossbills. The higher trees in 

 the coppices are often selected as building-places by the 

 carrion crow and magpie ; the latter, however, is not a 

 very common bird in this district. 



In many places among our little hills, we have deep 

 hollow sandy lanes, with steep banks, and great thick 

 hedges on each side a-top ; hedges run to seed, as it were, 

 and here and there grown into trees gnarled oak, bushy 

 rough-coated maples, and so forth trees, in fact, that, 

 stretching their arms from both sides of the way, shake 

 hands over your head, and form a kind of canopy of 



B 2 



