FLOWERING FERN. 
3 
being much preferred. The chief natural produce of the 
bhie sand is heatli, of the three usual species, which are 
very apt to be completely matted together with dodder. 
The moors or wet places in this sandy waste produce im- 
mense quantities of the beautiful little sundew, and many 
of those plants which mark a boggy surface. The D evil's 
Punch-bowl, one of the hollows of Hiiidhead, has long 
been celebrated for its abundant crops of whortleberries 
and the magnificence of its Flowering Fern, which here 
grows to a height of four feet. 
Notwithstanding the general bareness of the surround- 
ing country, a character common to all the western division 
of the county, the hills in the immediate neighbourhood of 
Godalming are completely covered with coppices, abound- 
ing with trees in all stages of growth, so as to form an 
excellent resort for the perching birds. In the under- 
wood of these hills the shy hawfinch breeds annually, and 
remains throughout the year; but the parent birds are 
difficult to obtain, flying the instant they catch sight of a 
gunner, although many hundred yards distant. 
The fir-trees on the higher grounds are frequently the 
resort of whole troops of crossbills. The higher trees in 
the coppices are often selected as building-places by the 
carrion crow and magpie ; the latter, however, is not a 
very common bird in this district. 
In many places among our little hills, we have deep 
hollow sandy lanes, with steep banks, and great thick 
hedges on each side a-top ; hedges run to seed, as it were, 
and here and there grown into trees — gnarled oak, bushy 
rough-coated maples, and so forth — trees, in fact, that, 
stretching their arms from both sides of the way, shake 
hands over your head, and form a kind of canopy of 
B 2 
