1 4 COUiX CLOUT'S CALENDAR. 



leaf, thoii^fh the blades arc still folded toj^ethcr or only 

 half expanded as yet ; and even on the hedges the 

 white-thorns are showing si^ns of life, the little fresh 

 pink scales bursting' throu^di their brown and withered 

 coverings, or even sometimes showing a tiny green til) 

 at the very end of a grouinj^ bough. When I break off 

 the smaller branches I can see by the bright green and 

 sai)i)y ^*'"^'' of the inner bark that the bushes are actively 

 engaged in putting forth chloroph)-ll, and tiiat a few 

 days more of these warm westerly breezes will bring out 

 the buds into leaves, at least in the sheltered southern 

 hollows and combes. 



This wide difference of climate between the Atlantic 

 slopes — open chiefly to the influences of the Gulf Stream 

 and the warm breezes which blow across it — and the 

 eastern half of l^ritain, which lies right in the teeth of 

 the Siberian east winds, has even stamped itself perman- 

 ently on the character and distribution of our flora. 

 Many of our plants of warmer types are only found in 

 the south-west. The high moor, on which I have come 

 out to-day for my morning's stroll, covered even now by 

 little white and short-stemmed daisies — they will grow 

 taller and pinker as the spring advances — is Claverton 

 Down : and Claverton Down is the only station in 

 England for a particular species of hairy spurge, of 

 which in fact I am now in search. 



It is not in itself a particularly interesting plant, 

 being very little different from the other spurges, all of 

 which are mere rank woodland or wayside weeds, with 

 curious green and black flowers, more noticeable to the 

 botanist than to the ordinary observer. But the fact 

 that it is found nowhere else in Great Britain except on 



