

OXFORD: THE UPPER RIVER 201 



And now here is something that seems more vividly 

 even than the grey walls themselves to put us in touch 

 with that old time. These good nuns were no cloistered 

 mystics — they were the ministers to the poor for miles 

 around. And do you see this curious plant growing 

 under the wall, with the heart-shaped leaf and the 

 yellow trumpet flower ? It is not a native of England, 

 but was planted here by the nuns. Why ? Because 

 it is Aristolochia^ the birthwort, and was useful as a 

 medicine in certain cases, as its name implies. 



What a little way we have come ! and there is 

 ever so much more to see and hear. It is getting so 

 late that all we can do now is to leave the boat and 

 hurriedly walk to King's Weir. You will seldom see 

 finer silver poplars than those that grow in Godstow ^^s^'^^s t^Jt^ 

 Wood. Do you notice how the trees are riddled by _ ^7f^- 

 the goat-moth caterpillar? This is a favourite wood, , x v^^' 



too, for lime and poplar hawks and other SphingidcB. 

 Had we time we could easily find a nightingale's 

 nest. There are always one or two in this wood, and 

 the sedge-warblers nest here in numbers. The reed- 

 warbler also makes its lovely pendant nest in the 

 reeds that flank the edge. In the matted roots of that 

 fallen poplar which we can just see from here a pair of \^ -"/'// .i^v- *v«* 

 kingfishers have nested for many years. The boys '^^^' ^'^V " 



