248 ODD HOURS WITH NATURE 



bramble sends out new shoots, which in their turn 

 sprawl over the hedge, and again form new starting- 

 points. By this manner of growth it often happens 

 that what looks like a great mass of brambles 

 covering a hedge or a wall may be, in strict truth, 

 no more than a single' plant. Though many kinds 

 of branches do on occasion root themselves in 

 contact with moist ground, no other British plant 

 has the regularly established habit of spreading 

 itself in this way. Some, however, have methods 

 not very unlike it. The strawberry, for example, 

 sends out its runners, on which quasi-independent 

 plants with both leaves and roots arise, capable of 

 establishing an independent existence. Many 

 others have far-travelling underground stems, 

 which at intervals send down roots and up vege- 

 tative shoots. When the underground stem is cut 

 between these, each section goes on as a separate 

 plant. But the bramble carries out the plan in 

 a bold, grasping, and, literally, over-reaching 

 fashion. 



Common people speak of " the " bramble, but 

 many botanists would not permit the use of the 

 singular. Some of them have divided the British 

 brambles into about a hundred species, each with 

 its strong point of specific difference from the 

 others in habit, foliage, flower, or fruit. Some 

 of the differences are visible to the most ordinary 

 observation ; thus brambles with pink instead of 

 the usual white flowers are common. But most 

 of the differences are slight, and many of them 

 are doubtless the product of the varying con- 

 ditions in which the plant finds itself, rather than 

 of variation established in the plant itself. Some 



