200 Oak-galls. 



folk believe its root to be a powerful ingredient in 

 love potions, and also poisonous. They identify it 

 with the mandrake. If growing in or close to a 

 churchyard its virtues are increased, for, though be- 

 coming fainter as they lengthen, the shadows of the 

 old superstitions linger still. Red nightshade berries 



not the deadly nightshade, but the 'bitter-sweet' 



hang sullenly among the bushes where this creep- 

 ing plant has trailed over them. Here and there 

 upon the bank wild gooseberry and currant bushes 

 may be found, planted by birds carrying off ripe fruit 

 from the garden. A wild gooseberry may sometimes 

 be seen growing out of the deca} T ed ' touchwood' on 

 the top of a hollow withy-pollard. Wild apple trees, 

 too, are not uncommon in the hedges. 



The beautiful rich color of the horse-chestnut, 

 when quite ripe and fresh from its prickly green shell, 

 can hardly be surpassed ; underneath the tree the 

 grass is strewn with the shells, where they have 

 fallen and burst. Close to the trunk the grass is 

 worn away by the restless trampling of horses, who 

 love the shade its foliage gives in summer. The oak- 

 apples which appear on the oaks in spring gen- 

 erally near the trunk fall off in the summer, and 

 lie shrivelled on the ground not unlike rotten' cork, or 

 black as if burned. But the oak-galls show thick on 

 some of the trees, light green, and round as a ball ; 

 they will remain on the branches after the leaves 

 have fallen, turning brown and hard, and hanging 

 there till the spring comes again. 



One of the cottagers in the adjacent hamlet col- 

 lects these brown balls and strings them upon wire, 

 making flower-stands and ornamental baskets for 



