THE WILD CLEMATIS. 
83 
the bramble being in some places the only thriving ve- 
getation in a fence. It is marvellous how fibrous-rooted 
vegetables, the roots of which penetrate no depth into 
the soil, are enabled in some seasons to preserve any 
appearance of verdure, the earth they are fixed in 
seeming divested of all moisture by the power of the 
sun, and being heated like a sand-bath. The warmth 
of the earth in 1825 I omitted to record; but in the 
following year, which was more dry, and nearly as hot, 
the thermometer buried in the earth to the depth of 
three inches, in a flower border where many plants 
were growing in that sort of languid state which they 
present in such exhausting seasons, indicated the heat 
of 110°. 
Having said thus much of the clematis, the “ withy- 
wind” of our peasantry, it must not be supposed that I 
advocate the advantages of this plant as a fence, but 
only tolerate it where we cannot induce much else to 
thrive, it making something of a boundary line ; and 
perhaps that is all, for very frequently its numerous 
tendrils, and the downy clusters of its caudated seeds 
are so interwoven, that the snow accumulates upon the 
bush, and presses the whole to the earth, so that in the 
spring we commonly find a gap to be repaired where 
the clematis has thriven. About February, or towards 
the end of winter, this plant becomes stripped of its 
feathery seeds, which is accomplished by mice, I be- 
lieve the harvest and the long-tailed one (mus sylvati- 
cus) principally ; with these they form nest-like beds in 
the upper and thickest part of the hedge, resorting to 
them in the day-time, where they enjoy in tolerable 
safety the air and warmth of the season, in preference 
to their cold and damp apartments in the earth, and I 
have occasionally disturbed them in their dormitories ; 
but at this time it is not observed that the seeds are 
much fed upon by them, and probably are only collected 
as shelter in a temporary dwelling. 
The little excursions of the naturalist, from habit 
and from acquirement, become a scene of constant ob- 
servation and remark. The insect that crawls, the note 
of the bird, the plant that flowers, or the vernal green 
