232 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



plant ? The bryony trailer might be called a creature 

 of green life. If it has no understanding of its own, 

 what an appearance of understanding is here ! 



But how came the bryony trailer to make the 

 mistake of faring out over a lane where it could 

 not find climbing facilities ? And, having fared in 

 vain, how came it to recognise and mend the error ? 

 Perhaps, at the start, its passion for climbing is not so 

 strong, and, in these first crude days of the plant's 

 growth out of the soil, the main business is just to 

 throw out anywhere a foot or two of trailer. 



The bryony, if not interfered with, returns to the 

 hedge, I think, always in the same way ; it coils up- 

 ward and round. It would seem as if it must be a 

 great strain on the trailer to hold the weight thus in 

 the empty air. Every hour the weight upheld is 

 growing. But with growing weight comes growing 

 strength. This fetches back the bryony trailer to the 

 hedge. On its return it may find some straight 

 stemmed plant, say jack-by- the-hedge. It grips poor 

 jack and wraps round and round to the very flower 

 head three or more neat coils. Then, still back on 

 its journey to the hedge, where by now may be 

 some real support. How the coils, loose at first, 

 tighten on the black bryony 's victim as the trailer 

 grows stronger ! But even bryony's grip is kind com- 

 pared to eglantine's, which will deform the hard wands 

 of hazel, so that we fashion them into grotesque 

 walking-sticks. 



