62 Plant-life of the Oxford District 



As nothing lives long in the shade of a big tree, a gap can be always 

 located near a tree trunk ; such gaps require constant mending, and are 

 commonly made good with a generous use of barbed wire. 1 



Such hedgerows with great range of biological factors, free insolation, 

 good drainage, and damp bottom, carry a correspondingly wide range of 

 types, which defy analysis, until it is realized that the assemblage is purely 

 artificial, and that all the forms are competing according to their special 

 requirements and capacity for getting there. At their optimum these 

 hedges present all the phases and features of regressive woodland, the 

 initial thorn-fence is as often lost to sight, as it is only traced in historical 

 development. The larger trees of high-forest afford shelter and humus 

 for woodland undergrowth ; grasses and herbaceous plants of the pastures 

 extend to the lower levels. Tangled lianas add to the jungle-effect, and 

 subaquatics may flourish in the ditch. Forms with deep-running rhizomes 

 and roots send up aerial shoots extending along the length of the mass. 

 The flora of such hedgerows constitutes a special feature of any agricultural 

 district, and locally may include over 100 forms taking part in the annual 

 succession. 



From forest-trees (Oak, Ash, Willow, and particularly Ulmus campestris, 

 running its soboles along the hedge-line), to minor woodland forms, Hazel, 

 Sallow, and woody shrubs growing from berries brought by roosting birds 

 ( Viburnum Lantana, Cornus, Ligustrum, Rhamnus catharticus, Prunus spinosa, 

 Pyrus Malus, and especially Sambucus) to scrambling forms as Rosa, Rubus in 

 variety. Climbers include Solanum Dulcamara, Calystegia, Lonicera, Humulus, 

 Bryonia and Tamus, to Galium Aparine, Vicia Cracca and Galium Mollugo. 

 Larger grasses push through, as Dactylis, Arrhenatherum, Bromus asper, Br achy- 

 podium sylvaticum, Agropyrum repens. Herbaceous forms follow the annual 

 succession Alltarta, Anthriscus sylvestris, Lychnis dioica, Geranium robert- 

 ianum, Stachys sylvatica^ etc., to more xerophytic summer flora of Heracleum, 

 Pastinaca, Daucus, Carduus (sp.), Rumex (sp.), Senecio Jacobaea, and Hel- 

 minthia echiotdes. Special cases of deep-travelling rhizomes give hedgebanks 

 in damper situations dominated by Spiraea Ulmaria, Epilobium hirsutum, 

 Equisetum Telmateia, Phalaris arundinacea, and Phragmites communis. 

 Examples of such formation afford interesting studies for more detailed 

 ecological examination, as each station requires to be taken as an indepen- 

 dent complex with special factors of soil and water-supply of its own ; as 

 also of the nature of the surrounding associations which supply the initial 

 equipment. 



(5) The case of the Hedgebank, as a deep road-cutting, where the road- 

 gradient has been lowered, is less general in a flat country. It differs from 

 the preceding by being backed against solid ground with assured water- 

 supply. Such banks carry a more abundant flora ; and where shaded may 

 retain the characters of damp woodland, with characteristic woodland forms 

 (Primrose, Violet, Melica nutans, Malva moschatd). (As a minor example, 

 cf. Kennington Lane, 'Little London', until recent times a woodland track.) 

 Such banks grade into the case of the railway-cutting, where this is 

 deep and wide enough to be left to something beyond mere grass (Little- 

 more, Horspath). On Corallian strata these carry an abundant flora, and 



1 Barbed wire entanglements fill gaps so cheaply, that good hedging tends to vanish ; but the 

 wire when rusted and concealed in later growth, is dangerous as well as objectionable. Though the 

 use of barbed wire tends to increase nearer the town, the condition of the hedgerows affords a good 

 test of the quality of local husbandry. In the more open country, the neat thorn-fence is dominant, 

 and often remarkably so. Where deteriorated and ruined, the original thorn-stumps can be generally 

 traced among the overgrowth ; substitution of Prunus spinosa in exposed areas, or Myrobolan Plum 

 around garden-tracts, gives no better results. The most destructive intrusives are Elder, Hazel, and 

 Common Elm; the two last run lengthways in the fence, and may in time wholly dominate it. 

 Minor garden-hedges of Privet {Ligustrumjaponicuiri}, Yew, Beech, Cupressus Lawsoniana, Holly, 

 attain a decorative value as they are kept constantly clipped and clean. 



