n6 



AUTUMN AND WINTER 



plentiful on chalky warrens, bare limestone slopes, or among 

 old ruins, where the decaying mortar gives it a similar 

 calcareous soil. The black and white bryonies both bear 

 scarlet berries with the same liquid translucence as those of 



the guelder-rose and the mountain- 

 ash. The bryonies shoot and 

 perish almost as swiftly as Jonah's 

 gourd ; and their quick decay in 

 October sometimes leaves the 

 translucent scarlet clusters hang- 

 ing almost unsupported, except 

 by the shrubs among which they 

 climbed. 



The day of all these softer 

 fruits is soon past ; they barely 

 outlast the departure of the summer 

 birds. The blackberry has a firmer 

 structure than most others, and is 

 often fairly palatable as late as 

 mid-November. It is curious that 

 blackberries are very much less 

 attractive to birds than to man ; 

 blackbirds and thrushes seem 

 seldom to touch them, except in 

 very dry seasons, when they are 

 thankful for any food which helps 

 to quench their thirst. This difference of taste is all 

 the more marked as both birds and men like wild rasp- 

 berries, which would seem to us berries of much the 

 same class as blackberries, and very different from those 

 of the guelder or rowan. But even the blackberry is 

 a perishable food compared with many of the seeds 

 and berries which provide a food-supply to many birds 



WHITE BRYONY 



