44 HOME AND GARDEN 



the delicate beauty of colour of silvery bark of Birch 

 and Beech and Holly, and that of the bases of great 

 Oaks, more rugged of texture, but just as tender in 

 colourings of grey and silver-green lichens. And it is 

 fine to see a giant Holly with smooth white stem more 

 than two feet thick — one hedgerow Holly that I know 

 girths seven feet three inches — the white stem shoot- 

 ing up into its own forest of dark-green prickly 



Dense cushions of Polypody Fern grow about the 

 bases of many of the hedge trees, especially where the 

 road or lane passes through woodland. The Poly- 

 podies seem to like best the roots of Oaks and Hazels, 

 and then of Beeches, and to grow at the extreme edge 

 or side of the bank ; for though the ferny mass may 

 spread to be a yard wide on the top of the bank, it is 

 much less usual to find it on any level ground away 

 from the edge. 



I have more than once observed that the northern 

 Hard Fern (Blechnum horeale) seems to have some 

 liking for growing near Hollies. I do not know if it is 

 the same elsewhere, but I think of three damp hedge- 

 banks with wet ditches at the foot, where there are 

 both Hollies and Blechnums ; in most cases where a 

 Holly occurs there is a Blechnum just under it. Two of 

 these hedges are three miles apart, and the third is six 

 miles away from the nearest of the other two. 



So frequent are some wild plants in hedge-banks, 

 and so comparatively scarce in other places, that one 



