140 THE MUSIC OF WILD FLOWERS 



to that of the sun or to the hands of a watch ; others 

 loyally follow the sun ; and a few individuals like 

 the feeble woody nightshade or bittersweet twine 

 indifferently in either direction. 



The wild hop invariably follows the course of the sun. 

 So does the honeysuckle, which seems to be the only 

 English climber which actually twines round the 

 trunks of trees. Often, as Gerard remarks, " it wind- 

 eth it selfe so straight and hard about that it leaveth 

 his print upon those things so wrapped." Hence its 

 name of woodbine, common in old authors, which well 

 describes this habit. There is perhaps no hedgerow 

 creeper which appealed so strongly to our forefathers. 

 Did not Shakespeare declare in the Midsummer's Night's 

 Dream, 



" I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows, 

 Where oxlips, and the nodding violet grows ; 

 Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine"? 



And in The Compleat Angler, it will be remembered, our 

 honest fisherman more than once takes refuge from the 

 heat of the day " in the cool shade of a sweet honey- 

 suckle hedge." 



Of the true tendril-bearing plants we have several 

 examples in the British flora, the most conspicuous of 

 which is Bryonia dioica, L., or the white bryony. The 

 tendrils are highly elastic and enable the plant to retain 

 its hold in the most stormy weather. Darwin tells us 

 that on several occasions he went out on purpose dur- 

 ing a gale to " watch a bryony growing in an exposed 

 hedge, with its tendrils attached to the surrounding 

 bushes ; and as the thick and thin branches were 

 tossed to and fro by the wind the tendrils, had they not 



