THE FLOWERS OF EARLY SPRING 17 



practice of transplanting it into cot- Wood, when cutting the undergrowth, 



tage gardens. For many years I he had seen as many as a score of 



searched its ancient haunts in vain, plants together. They were mostly, 



In spite of the friendly co-operation he said, in the corner of the copse 



of gamekeepers and woodmen in dif- near the great fir trees. Another old 



ferent parts of the county, not a shrub woodman, nearly ninety years of age, 



could be discovered. At last we were confirmed the statement. They were 



successful. A woodman wrote to say common, he said, when he was a boy ; 



he had found the " mezell." I at he had often rooted 'em up to put in 



once started for the wood, some ten his garden ; but he " hadn't seen n'ere 



or twelve miles distant, and there to a one for many years." An old lady 



my delight I counted no less than who had done field work all her days, 



twenty-two plants, many of them in told much the same story ; but they 



flower. The bright pink blossoms still grew, she asserted, in William's 



looked most attractive, while their Wood : the plant in her garden came 



fragrance was delicious. The woodman from there some fifteen years ago ; 



knew of other plants, he said, else- she" know' d where to find the mezell." 



where, but except in flower they were I promised her five shillings if she 



" wonderful difficult " to find ; still would find a plant and take me to 



when the red berries were ripe it was see it. She went several times to 



possible to distinguish them again, the wood, which was close to her cot- 



The rabbits, he said, were the worst tage, but not a plant could she find, 



enemies of the " mezell " ; if it weren't The rabbits had destroyed 'em, she 



for the rabbits the plant would be said. It was clear, however, that the 



common enough. A few years later, mezereon used to grow in William's 



in answer to an inquiry, he wrote Wood, and as recently as twelve or 



that the plant had become very scarce, fifteen years ago, and it was doubtless 



he could " only find one tree but what there still if only one could chance to 



have been bit off by the rabbits." light upon it. At length, after many 



In my last parish, near Petersfield, fruitless searches, diligence was re- 



the mezereon was to be found in two warded, and on March 13, 1900, on a 



woods. The old sexton; who had steep slope of the wood close to an 



done much copsing in his younger ancient yew tree, I came across a fine 



days, assured me that in William's bush, of several years' growth, covered 



2 



