FAMILIAR WILD FRUITS 



967 





ft. 



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HAWTHORN (IN FRUIT). 



Bramble, and the blooms are larger and stems 



pure white, whilst the fruit is 



made up of fewer, larger grains. 



The purple bloom gives it a very 



tempting appearance, and it does 



not belie its looks, for if tasted it 



will be found far richer in flavour 



than the more common fruit. The 



blackbird is especially fond of this 



fruit. The novice may always tell 



whether a fruit is the Bramble or 



Dewberry by looking at the five 



segments of the calyx at the base 



of the fruit. If these are thrown 



back round the stem it is a Bramble, 



but if they rise round the fruit, 



a Dewberry. 



The Crab A]-)])le (Pyrus mains) 

 may frequently be met with as a 

 tree of considerable size, but more 

 often it is seen merely as a shrub 

 or small tree growing in the hedge- 

 row. The blossom in spring, in the 

 opinion of many, is the most lovely 

 of all our wild flowers, and the 

 rosy-cheeked fruit is certainly very 

 beautiful in appearance, but, being 

 rich with malic acid, they are by 

 no means pleasing to the palate ; 

 all the same, however, a delightful 

 jelly can be made from tlicm, and 



in former days a kind of cider 

 was also manufactured from this 

 fiuit. 



A very common fruit of almost 

 c\-ery hedgerow is that of the 

 Black Bryony {Tamils communis). 

 This is the plant whose trailing 

 l(_af-wreaths rival all other climbing 

 ])lants during the summer. Then 

 the leaves are very bright and dark 

 green, sometimes purple-black, but 

 in autumn these change like other 

 foliage and become yellow or brown. 

 The berries, borne in clusters, pass 

 from green through yellow and 

 orange until they assume a brilliant 

 scarlet hue. As the fruit may be 

 seen in all these stages in early 

 autimm, the plant looks very 

 attractive from a distance. At 

 the same time, the fruit never 

 strikes one as being tempting, and, 

 if tasted, one would be sufficient, 

 as it is raw and acrid in f^a^'our. 

 The berries remain on the twining 

 long after the leaves have fallen. 



BLACK BRYONY (IN FRUIT). 



