THE COUNTRY LIFE. 237 



in spring thrust up their slender green tubes, 

 tipped with two spear-like leaves. The reed 

 varies in height according to the position in 

 which it grows. If the hedge has been cut it 

 does not reach higher than four or five feet ; 

 when it springs from a deep, hollow corner, or 

 with bushes to draw it up, you can hardly 

 touch its tip with your walking-stick. The 

 leaders of the black bryony, lifting themselves 

 above the bushes, and having just there nothing 

 to cling to, twist around each other, and two 

 bines thus find mutual support where one 

 alone would fall of its own weight. 



" In the watery places the sedges send up 

 their dark flowers, dusted with light yellow 

 pollen, rising above the triangular stem with 

 its narrow, ribbed leaf. The reed- sparrow or 

 bunting sits upon the spray over the ditch 

 with its carex grass and rushes ; he is a grace- 

 ful bird, with a crown of glossy black. Hops 

 climb the ash and hang their clusters, which 

 impart an aromatic scent to the hand that 

 plucks them ; broad burdock leaves, which the 

 mouchers put on the top of their baskets to 

 shield their freshly gathered watercresses from 



