52 THE WOODLANDS. 



chalky soil, and is common in Kentish woods, 

 although as a small straggling bush. The curious 

 quadrangular fruits are rose-coloured or whitish, 

 splitting at the top in a cruciate manner, and ex- 

 hibiting the orange-coated seeds. The English name 

 of Prick-wood alludes to the employment of the 

 wood for toothpicks and skewers, which were for- 

 merly called "pricks." In some of the Scottish 

 woods the trees abound, and are of a larger size than 

 in England. In Forfarshire they may be seen from 

 twenty-five to thirty-five feet in height, with trunks a 

 foot and upwards in diameter. In Germany the 

 wood is still said to be used for making spindles, 

 whence originated the name of " spindelbaum," or 

 spindle-tree ; but, besides this, the sticks are bored, 

 and used as shanks for the earthenware tobacco- 

 pipes so universally in use amongst the Germans. 



The GUELDER Ross, 1 and its companion the 

 Mealy Guelder Rose, 2 mingle in the undergrowth of 

 woods on the south side of London, apparently pre- 

 ferring a chalky soil. In its wild condition the 

 former does not produce the round white clusters of 

 abortive flowers, resembling a snowball, which are 

 the ornament of the cultivated variety, but the smaller 

 and irregular tufts really produced are fertile towards 

 the centre. The mealy Guelder Rose is very con- 

 spicuous in the autumn and winter, when the large 

 flat clusters of bright red berries are nodding and 

 bending beneath their own weight The young twigs 

 and large elliptical leaves on the underside are 



1 Viburnum Optilus. 2 Viburnum Lantana* 



