50 WILD FLOWEKS OF SPKING. 



close to the foot-path. Higher in the hedge we may 

 notice the purple-tinged leaves of the Honeysuckle, 

 which, early in March, are pretty well covered. The 

 flowers of the Ash (Fraxinus) are coming out on its 

 leafless boughs, and the spiry branches of the Poplar 

 look quite green. The resinous buds of the Chestnut 

 (Costarica) have opened their sturdy sheaths, and 

 permitted the green leaflets to appear. On the banks 

 the Eerns are uncurling their croaier-like fronds 

 from their grey, brown, and dark scales; and the 

 grass begins to shoot upwards with a delicious green- 

 ness. 



Near at hand in every hedge, and straggling on to 

 the waste ground, the snow-white flowers of the com- 

 mon Sloe, the well-known Blackthorn (Prunus spi- 

 nosd), begin to appear, heralding the spring. The 

 elliptical leaves do not appear until after the fragrant 

 flowers and their orange-coloured anthers have de- 

 parted. The shining polished black boughs are much 

 used for walking-sticks ; the bark has been used as a 

 febrifuge, the leaves to adulterate beer, and the fruit 

 has a questionable reputation in connection with port 

 wine of a cheap quality, and is not unknown as a rural 

 preserve. As a hedge fruit, and indeed as a wayside 



