Stray Notes 269 



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, re- 

 maining 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 diameter, 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 considerable 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 a moderate 

 size. Does the may bloom, which is almost proverbial for 

 its sweetness, occasionally turn sour, as it were, before a 

 thunderstorm ? Bushes covered with this flower certainly 

 emit an unpleasant smell sometimes quite distinct from 

 the usual odour of the may. 



The hedge is so intensely English and so mixed up in 

 all popular ideas that it is no wonder it forms the basis of 

 many proverbs and sayings — such as, ' The sun does not 

 shine on both sides of the hedge at once,' ' rough as a, 

 hedge,' the verb ' to hedge,' and so on. Has any attempt 

 ever been made to cultivate the earth-nut, pig-nut, or 

 ground-nut, as it is variously called, which the ploughboys 

 search for and dig up with their clasp-knives ? It is found 

 by the small slender stalk it sends up, and insignificant 

 white flower, and lies a few inches below the surface : the 



