SPORT AND SCIENCE. 185 



distance, in the sunny days of May when hares are 

 often abroad in daylight, as big as a good-sized dog, 

 and, except by the leap and the absence of visible tail, 

 can hardly be told from a dog. The bamboo fishing- 

 rods, if you will glance at the bamboo itself as you 

 fish, seem the most singular of growths. There is no 

 wood in the hedge like it, neither ash, hazel, oak, 

 sapling, nor anything ; it is thoroughly foreign, almost 

 unnatural. The hard knots, the hollow stem, the sur- 

 face glazed so as to resist a cut with a knife and nearly 

 turn the steel this is a tropical production alone. But 

 while working round the shore presently you come to 

 the sedges, and by the sedges stands a bunch of reeds. 

 A reed is a miniature bamboo, the same shape, the 

 same knots, and glazy surface ; and on reference to any 

 intelligent work of botany, it appears that they both 

 belong to the same order of inward-growing Endogens,so 

 that a few moments bestowed on the reed by the waters 

 give a clear idea of the tropical bamboo, and make 

 the singular foreign production home-like and natural. 

 I found, while I was shooting every day, that 

 the reeds, and ferns, and various growths through 

 which 'I pushed my way, explained to me the jungles 

 of India, the swamps of Central Africa, and the back- 

 woods of America; all the vegetation of the world. 

 Representatives exist in our own woods, hedges, and 

 fields, or by the shore of inland waters. It was the 

 same with flowers. I think I am scientifically accurate 

 in saying that every known plant has a relative of the 

 same species or genus, growing wild in this country. 

 The very daisy, the commonest of all, contains a 

 volume of botany ; so do the heaths, and the harebells 



