236 THE EULOGY OF RICHARD JEFFERIES. 



finally the bines of the noxious bitter-sweet or 

 nightshade, starting from the decayed wood, 

 supported themselves among the willow- 

 branches, and in autumn were bright with red 

 berries. Ash-stoles, the buds on whose boughs 

 in spring are hidden under black sheaths ; nut- 

 tree stoles, with ever-welcome nuts always 

 stolen here, but on the downs, where they are 

 plentiful, staying till they fall ; young oak 

 growing up from the butt of a felled tree. On 

 these oak-twigs sometimes, besides the ordinary 

 round galls, there may be found another gall, 

 larger, and formed, as it were, of green scales 

 one above the other. 



" Where shall we find in the artificial and, 

 to my thinking, tasteless pleasure-grounds of 

 modern houses so beautiful a shrubbery as this 

 old hedgerow ? Nor were evergreens wanting, 

 for the ivy grew thickly, and there was one 

 holly bush not more, for the soil was not 

 affected by holly. The tall cow-parsnip or 

 * gicks ' rose up through the bushes ; the great 

 hollow stem of the angelica grew at the edge 

 of the field, on the verge of the grass, but still 

 sheltered by the brambles. Some reeds early 



