THE COMMON BRAMBLES. 108 



green, dense balls, every tender leaf being con- 

 stantly shorn away by the sheep and rabbits that 

 frequent those places, and present, upon a larger 

 scale, the very appearance of these grass-balls. Our 

 specimens are rather local than general, and were 

 the produce of the Malvern hills. 



The common brambles (rubus ccesius and fruti- 

 cosus) may almost be considered as evergreens. 

 Hedgers to be sure they are : but we have few, 

 perhaps no other shrubby plant, naturally deci- 

 duous, excepting the privet, that will .retain its 

 verdure through the year, preserving, by a pecu- 

 culiar construction of its vessels, a portion of 

 foliage unseared by frosts, and contending with 

 gales that destroy and strip away all the honours 

 of its neighbours. This circumstance enables us to 

 observe a curious, strongly-defined line upon the 

 leaves, like a glossy whitish film, meandering over 

 the surface, becoming progressively larger, with a 

 fine intestinal-like line running through the centre. 

 (Plate 3. Fig. 3.) What occasioned this sinuous path 

 long puzzled me satisfactorily to ascertain, con- 

 sidering it entirely of vegetable origin ; and all the 

 various polymorphous parasitics were successively 

 thought of. At one time I deemed it like puccinia, 

 which vegetates beneath the cuticle of leaves : but 

 this was rejected ; and probably I might long have 

 wandered in error, had not the Rev. Mr. Kirby 

 dissipated all my conjectures by informing me that 

 it was the pathway of a small caterpillar. There 

 are several species of them, which are placed by 



