528 



The Museum Gazette 



WITCHES' BROOMS ON TREES. 



Amongst the objects which the leafless season of the year 

 makes conspicuous in our woods and hedgerows are certain 

 dark, almost globular agglomerations of small twigs on the 

 boughs of many different kinds of trees. They are especially 

 common on the birch, and it is from a birch tree on the Grays 



Witches' Brooms on a Birch (from an original photograph). 



Wood Road, within half a mile of the Haslemere Museum, that 

 the photograph now reproduced was taken. They look at first 

 sight almost like birds' nests, but apart from the fact that the 

 winter season is inappropriate, it may be observed that they 

 occur on comparatively slender boughs at a great distance 

 from the stem, and that many of them are to some extent 

 pendulous. The conditions are popularly known as witches' 

 besoms or brooms. Their story in its main points may be 



