WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 229 



flower-stands and ornamental baskets for sale. They 

 seem to appear in numbers upon those oak bushes 

 rather than trees which spring up when an oak has been 

 cut down but the stump has not been grubbed up. 

 These shoots at first often bear leaves of great size, 

 many times larger than the ordinary oak leaf ; some 

 are really immense, measuring occasionally fourteen 

 or fifteen inches in length. As the shoots grow into 

 a bush the leaves diminish in size and become like 

 those of the tree. 



In the ditch the tall teazle lifts its prickly head. 

 The large leaves of this plant grow in pairs, one on 

 each side of the stem, and while the plant is young 

 are connected in a curious manner by a green mem- 

 brane, or continuation of the lower part of the leaf 

 round the stem, so as to form a cup. The stalk rises 

 in the centre of the cup, and of these vessels there are 

 three or four above each other in stories. When it 

 rains, the drops, instead of falling off as from other 

 leaves, run down these, and are collected in the cups, 

 which thus form so many natural rain-gauges. If it 

 is a large plant, the cup nearest the ground the 

 biggest will hold as much as two or three wine-glasses. 

 This water remains there for a considerable time, for 

 several days after a shower, and is fatal to numbers of 

 bisects which climb up the stalk or alight on the 

 leaves and fall in. While the grass and the earth of 

 the bank are quite dry, therefore, the teazle often has 

 a supply of water ; and when it dries up, the drowned 

 insects remain at the bottom like the dregs of a draught 



