NIGHTINGAXE ROAD 



In a closely cropped hedge opposite this great 

 mound (cropped because enclosing a cornfield) 

 there grows a solitary shrub of the wayfaring tree. 

 Though well known elsewhere, there is not, so far 

 as I am aware, another bush of it for miles, and I 

 should not have noticed this had not this part of 

 the highway been so pleasant a place to stroll to 

 and fro in almost all the year. The twigs of the 

 wayfaring tree are covered with a mealy substance 

 which comes off on the fingers when touched. A 

 stray shrub or plant like this sometimes seems of 

 more interest than a whole group. 



For instance, most of the cottage gardens have 

 foxgloves in them, but I had not observed any 

 wild, till one afternoon near some woods I found a 

 tall and beautiful foxglove, richer in colour than 

 the garden specimens, and with bells more thickly 

 crowded, lifting its spike of purple above the low- 

 cropped hawthorn. In districts where the soil is 

 favourable to the foxglove it would not have been 

 noticed, but here, alone and unexpected, it was 

 welcomed. The bees in spring come to the broad 

 wayside sward by the great mound to the bright 

 dandelions ; presently to the white clover, and 

 later to the heaths. 



There are about sixty wild flowers which grow 

 freely along this road, namely, yellow agrimony, 

 amphibious persicaria,arum, avens, bindweed, bird's- 

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