224 Wild Life in a Southern County. 
products of the hedge, they are supposed to be 
improved by frost. 
Farther down the highway hedge, by the gate- 
way, a large elder bush, or rather tree, bears a profu- 
sion of berries. Blue-black sloes adhere to—they do 
not hang on—the blackthorn bushes: in places the 
boughs are loaded with them. Here and there crabs 
cling to the tough crab tree, whose bark has a dull 
gloss on it, something like dark polished leather. 
Bunches of red berries shine on the woodbine: fruit 
growing in bunches usually depends, but these are 
often on the upper side of the stalk ; and the latter 
bloom shows by them—flower and fruit at the same 
time. The berry has a viscous feel. 
Larger berries—some red, some green, on the 
same bunch—cluster on the vines of the bryony. The 
white bryony, whose leaf is not unlike that of the 
grape, has a magical reputation, and the cottage folk 
believe its root to be a powerful ingredient in love 
potions, and also poisonous. They identify it with 
the mandrake. If growing in or close to a church- 
yard its virtues are increased, for, though becoming 
fainter as they lengthen, the shadows of the old super- 
stitions linger still. Red nightshade berries—not the 
deadly nightshade, but the ‘bitter-sweet’—hang 
sullenly among the bushes where this creeping plant 
has trailed over them. Here and there upon the 
bank wild gooseberry and currant bushes may be 
found, planted by birds carrying off ripe fruit from 
