92 FAMILIAR TREES 



As seen in the hedgerow, the yearly victim of the 

 bill-hook or shears, Viburnum Lantana appears 

 rather rigid than pliant; but when young it grows 

 rapidly, and in coppice woodswill produce shoots five 

 or six feet long. These are still used in Germany 

 in basket-making and for tying faggots. Parkinson 

 says of it, " the branches hereof are so tough and 

 strong, withall, that they serve better for bands to 

 tye bundels or any other thing withall, or to make 

 wreathes to hold together the gates of their fields, 

 then either withy or any other the like." It is simi- 

 larly to its casual rustic use for whips that the bush 

 owes one series of its English names. " Lithe-wort " 

 and " lith3'-tree," and the Hampshire " Whip-Crop " 

 and " Twist-wood," all have this reference, " twist " 

 being a local term for a switch. 



Another series of popular names is obviously 

 suggested by the thick covering of star-shaped hairs 

 with which both its branches and leaves are densely 

 covered. . Thomas Johnson, in his edition of Gerard's 

 " Herball " (] 633), which Eay termed the " emacu- 

 late " edition, says, " I enquired of a country- 

 man in Essex if he knew any name of this; he 

 answered, it was called the Cotton-tree, by reason 

 of the softnesse of the leaves " ; and Aubrey, ap- 

 .parently mishearing the name, speaks of it as the 

 " Coven- tree," which is, he says, " common about 

 Chalke and Cranbourn Chase ; the carters doe make 

 their whippes of it." Writing elsewhere of the same 

 tree he says, " In and about Cranbourn chaee growes 

 naturally a tree with a white leafe ; it is no bigger 

 than a cherry tree: they call it Whiting or White- 



