THE COMMON BRAMBLES. 
77 
entire roots of a grass, gathered from a down fed by 
sheep from time immemorial. It is probably that of 
the hard fescue (festuca duriuscula), which, having 
been constantly eaten down by cattle, has never thrown 
up flowering stems, giving out only radical leaves. 
These appear to have been cropped short, as soon as 
they have sprung up, the less succulent and strawy por- 
tions only being left, like a ball upon the surface, as a 
bush constantly clipped by the gardener’s shears. The 
root appears to have annually increased, though the 
upper parts it was destined to nourish have been de- 
stroyed, until it became a lock of closely compacted 
fibres, like a tuft of hair, six or eight inches in length. 
Furze bushes, growing upon many downs in V/ales, 
Devon, and Cornwall, assume commonly the appearance 
of large, green, dense balls, every tender leaf being 
constantly shorn away by the sheep and rabbits that 
frequent those places, and present, upon a larger scale, 
the very appearance of these grass-balls. Our speci- 
mens are rather local than general, and were the pro- 
duce of the Malvern hills. 
The common brambles (rubus caesius and fruticosus) 
may almost be considered as evergreens. Hedgers to 
be sure they are : but we have few, perhaps no other 
shrubby plant, naturally deciduous, excepting the privet, 
that will retain its verdure through the year, preserving, 
by a peculiar construction of its vessels, a portion of 
foliage unseared by frosts, and contending with gales 
that destroy and strip aw T ay all the honors of its neigh- 
bors. This circumstance enables us to observe a curi- 
ous, strongly defined line upon the leaves, like a glossy 
whitish film, meandering over the surface, becoming 
progressively larger, with a fine intestinal-like line 
running through the centre. What occasioned this 
sinuous path long puzzled me satisfactorily to ascertain, 
considering it entirely of vegetable origin ; and all the 
various polymorphous parasitics were successively 
thought of. At one time I deemed it like puccinia, 
which vegetates beneath the cuticle of leaves : but this 
was rejected ; and probably I might long have wandered 
in error, had not the Rev. Mr. Kirby dissipated all my 
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