THE BRAMBLE, OR BLACKBERRY 143 



from unhealthy places and hostile rivals, to take tem- 

 porary rest in the flight from discomfort and danger 

 by rooting at convenient places where the pioneering 



120 branches (bowed down by their own weight) bend 

 to touch the ground, and to proceed again recruited 

 from those stations as from new bases and centres of 

 strength, until in the prolonged struggle the energetic 

 plant arrives by happy chance at an area favourable 

 to life and (it may be) luxuriant or even luxurious 

 existence. The manner of its flight reminds one of 

 the old story of the Libyan wrestler whose strength 

 was renewed by repeated contact with his mother 

 earth. It suggests a converse to the old proverb that 



iso pride precedes a fall ; every fall may not be disas- 

 trous, but the occasion and cause of a pride that is 

 justifiable. 



Perhaps the surest enemy of the bramble is * the Where it 

 prosperous growth of the tall wood ' (to use Milton's tjinves - 

 words) ; the wood, that is, in which, while the trees 

 were still tiny saplings, it too, as a seedling, began 

 its history. Its low horizontal method of growth 

 cannot cope with the erect growth of the forest, and, 

 as the latter gains upon it, gradually shutting out sun 



HO and air, its only chance of survival is to shift, by the 

 means at its disposal, to new quarters on the edge 

 of the wood. Hence it is that you generally find 

 strong and abiding colonies of brambles more or less 

 regularly established along the line where the wood- 

 land meets the open. There they thrive against the 

 hostility of all kinds of undergrowth, thanks to a 

 robust constitution, to capable far-reaching arms, and 

 hands of rough, tough, five-fingered leaves that can 

 both grip and resist ; thanks also to an armoury of 



