DEWBERRY (IN FRUIT). 



FAMILIAR WILD FRUITS 



By BENJAMIN HANLEY 



With Photographs by the Author 



AS the harvest-tide of the year ap- 

 ,/~\ preaches and flowers give way to 

 seed and berry, when Nature puts 

 on her autumnal dress of gold and 

 bronze, many kinds of wild fruits may 

 be found up and down the countryside. 

 Of these the hedgerow has a goodly 

 share, and although to the great majority 

 the one and only fruit of the hedge is the 

 Bramt)le, there are, nevertheless, others 

 even more interesting. 



The first likely to be noticed is that of 

 the Hawthorn {Cralagiis oxyacantha), great 

 bunches of fruit, known as " haws," lining 

 the branches and giving the bush quite a 

 ruddy tinge. These have resulted from 

 the clustered creamy foam of the " May " 

 blossom. During the winter months these 

 haws form the staple diet of many birds 

 of the thrush family ; our winter visitor, 

 the fieldfare, would be badly off indeed 

 but for these. The missel thrush sets 



ajMrt a bush for his own special use, and 

 jealously guards it, fiercely attacking any 

 feathered robbers, and almost all day 

 long in early winter one may hear him 

 harshly protesting against their thievish 

 ways. The haw has a thin, fleshy coat- 

 ing, and beneath this is a hard woody 

 case containing the seed. The Hawthorn 

 is a very valuable material for hedge- 

 making ; that this was known to our 

 ancestors is proved by the fact that its 

 name is derived fromx a Saxon word 

 meaning " hedge thorn." 



Towards the foot of the hedge one may 

 find berries almost like those of the Bram- 

 ble, covered with a rich purple bloom. This 

 is the fruit of the Dewberry {Riibiis cicsius), 

 a near relative of the Common Bramble 

 (Riib'us fritiicosiis). It may be recognised 

 by its more slentler branches, which pos- 

 sess only very small prickles. Again, it 

 does not flower so profusely as the 



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