NATURE NEAR LONDON S-^K 



Yellowish green cup-like leaves are forming 

 upon the brown and drooping heads of the spurge, 

 which, sheltered by the bushes, has endured the 

 winter's frosts. The lads pull them off, and break 

 the stems, to watch the white " milk " well up, the 

 whole plant being full of acrid juice. Whorls of 

 woodruff and grass-like leaves of stitchwort are 

 rising ; the latter holds but feebly to the earth, and 

 even in snatching the flower the roots sometimes 

 give way and the plant is lifted with it. 



Upon either hand the mounds are so broad that 

 they in places resemble covers rather than hedges, 

 thickly grown with bramble and briar, hazel and 

 hawthorn, above which the straight trunks of 

 young oaks and Spanish chestnuts stand in crowded 

 but careless ranks. The leaves which dropped in 

 the preceding autumn from these trees still lie 

 on the ground under the bushes, dry and brittle, and 

 the blackbirds searching about among them cause 

 as much rustling as if some animal were routing 

 about. 



As the month progresses, these wide mounds 

 become completely green, hawthorn and bramble, 

 briar and hazel, put forth their leaves, and the eye 

 can no longer see into the recesses. But above, 

 the oaks and edible chestnuts are still dark and 

 leafless, almost black by contrast with the vivid 

 green beneath them. Upon their bare boughs the 



