182 OUT OF DOORS. 



and which, as it passes several years in the larval state, 

 and feeds all the while upon the tree, makes no small 

 damage in the neighbourhood. 



It is easy to detect the trees that are afflicted with 

 this destroyer. They first show signs of decay in the 

 upper branches, and the tree gradually dies down to 

 the root. If it be cut down, and the stump opened, 

 the cause of the disease will at once be evident in the 

 shape of large soft, grey, white, shining grubs, with 

 very large and lumpy bodies, and a pair of horny, 

 powerful jaws, between which anyone who gets a finger 

 will repent it, and so obese that like Basil Hall's fat 

 pig ' Jean,' the creatures cannot stand on their little 

 legs, but are obliged to lie perpetually on their sides. 



At some distance is a row of silver birches, their 

 shining stems glistening against the background of 

 brackens which stretch beyond them ; a tall, weeping 

 birch waves its feathery plumage in the breeze, and 

 around is a fringe of elms, oaks, and poplars, with one 

 or two fine cedars spreading their ' dark layers of 

 shade ' in the middle distance. 



It might seem that a simple blackberry bush would 

 look quite insignificant in the midst of such surround- 

 ings ; but, in reality, they only serve to set forth its 

 beauty, there being no similarity, and therefore no 

 rivalry between the forest trees and the blackberry 

 bush. 



It is not, however, an ordinary blackberry, but the 

 very king of blackberries. It forms a round clump, 



