330 Wild Lifein a Southern County. 
numerable parasites. The labourers call those hairy 
caterpillars which curl in a circle ‘ Devil’s rings ’—a 
remnant of the old superstition that attributed every- 
thing that looked strange to demoniacal agency. 
There is a tendency to variation even in the 
common buttercup. Not long since I saw one with 
a double flower; the petals of each were complete and 
distinct, the two flowers being set back to back on the 
top of the stalk. The stem of one of the bryonies. 
withers up so completely that the shrinkage, aided by 
a little wind, snaps it. Then a bunch of red berries 
may be seen hanging from the lower boughs of a tree 
—a part of the stem, twined round, remaining there 
—the berries look as if belonging to the tree itself, the 
other part of the stem having fallen to the ground. 
In clay soils the ivy does not attain any large 
size ; but where there is some admixture of loam, or 
sand, it flourishes ; I have seen ivy whose main stem. 
growing up the side of an oak was five inches in dia- 
meter, and had some pretensions to be called timber. 
The bulrush, which is usually associated with water, 
does not grow in a great many brooks and ponds ; in 
some districts it is even rare, and it requires a con- 
siderable search to find a group of these handsome 
rushes. Water-lilies are equally absent from certain 
districts. Elms do not seem to flourish near water ; 
they do not reach any size, and a white, unhealthy- 
looking sap exudes from the trunk. Water seems, 
too, to check the growth of ash after it has reached 
