NEW V 0> 

 BOTAN'.' 



TORREYA *>*"' 



Vol. 40 March-April, 1940 \o. 2 



A Shady Lane 



Grace L. Clapp 



Some few dirt roads leading off from concrete highways are 

 worth the attention of the passerby. 



One such has been a shady lane for over fifty years. In those 

 earlier days Virginia rail fences topped both of its siltlike slopes. 

 Cows were pastured in the grassy apple orchard at the north while 

 tobacco or potatoes and vegetables were raised in the lot on the 

 south. At that time pussy willow, fragrant grapevines, chokecherry 

 and chokeberry, small elms along the fences, formed two green 

 hedgerows in summer. On the north side, 210 feet from a farmer's 

 driveway, stood two big chestnut trees, and opposite the larger was 

 a red maple. In the autumn the burrs fell among yellow brakes and 

 the nuts were half hidden among the mosses. A few blueberries and 

 small blackberries ripened under the maple. 



Seasonally the selectman's helper cut the bushes because their 

 wet foliage and branches brushed against an occasional passing 

 carriage. Cutting is still continued in late summer before the "hay 

 fever" season comes on. 



Chestnut trees, apple orchard and gray fences disappeared long 

 ago but the big red maple (now 9^ feet in girth 3 feet from the 

 ground) remains. One large elm has grown up on the north side 

 of the lane. 



Within the past 20-25 years, the farmer set out a row of hem- 

 locks (7) and spruces (2) along the top of the south ridge. Within 

 5 years he has added white pines (11) filling the space between 

 the older evergreens. Two big apple trees close to his driveway help 

 to make a continuous shade for the northfacing bank in summer. 

 In spring it holds ice and snow about two weeks longer than the 

 sunfacing slope — much as in a forest ravine. 



The slopes, discounting the road ditch of varying width and 

 depth, are about 8 feet wide and are covered with a mass of com- 

 pact foliage apparently made up of ferns. However, a surprisingly 



29 



