236 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



corresponding one on the other side. Clematis econo- 

 mises ; the little stalk that holds the leaf must here 

 and there twine about a neighbour to help steady and 

 uphold the whole plant, though how it is decreed that 

 this stalk or petiole shall twine, and that one not 

 twine, we do not know. Does chaos or chance decide 

 it ? If so, it looks as if there must be some effective 

 ruling principles in chaos, or clematis could never be 

 steadily reared and held hi position at the hedge-top. 



Fourth, take the ivy's method. Here the climbing 

 and grasping method is little like that of bryonies 

 or clematis. The ivy roots itself in. Everything it 

 seizes it grows into, becomes almost parcel of. Here, 

 perhaps, is the fastest plant hold of all ; and it need 

 have a firmer hold than bryonies and clematis, for it 

 is a hold not for a summer season, a few weeks, but 

 for many seasons, a hundred or more. All these 

 climbers really climb, really grip. But there is a class 

 of plants in the hedgerow that hardly can be said to 

 grip, if to climb. The sticky goosegrass leans against 

 the hedge in wavy lines and layers, more or less regular; 

 the white bedstraw sprawls and clambers anyhow. 

 They are so weak and flaccid that the lightest pull 

 tears them singly or in masses from their quarters in 

 or against their hedge-host. As the black bryony's 

 growth and grip bespeak resolution, the bedstraw's 

 whole demeanour seems to bespeak irresolution ; force 

 in bryony, feebleness in bedstraw. 



But these looks of bedstraw and goosegrass belie 



