212 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
collected the requisite quantity of earth and stones, and piled up 
these materials into the rude hedge-bank, where would he obtain 
the bushes to complete the work? Should the newly enclosed land 
have any suitable ones scattered over it, which in many spots would 
certainly be the case, I think he would be sure to root up these 
and use them, as by so doing he would be ridding the land of an 
encumbrance whilst supplying his want. Sometimes an adjacent 
copse might furnish all that he required. In either case the 
transplanted bushes would of course continue to rank among species 
indigenous to the locality, though from being removed to the 
hedge-row they would henceforth have to be considered as in 
an artificial habitat. However, in certain tracts, elevated ones 
especially, the adjacent ground would be likely to be destitute of 
any suitable bushes; so here the workman would have to obtain 
them elsewhere. Yet in early times it is’probable that even when 
so circumstanced he would get only those belonging to truly in- 
digenous species. In later days, after arboriculture and horticulture 
had made some progress, it might be different; for we can imagine 
him then resorting to a neighbouring garden to take from it any 
suckers or self-sown seedlings of Plum, Pear, or Apple, or else 
going to some plantation near at hand to bring back a few young 
Beech or Elm, to complete his work. This might occur ages before 
there were nurserymen to rear bushes for hedge-row making. 
Whilst speaking of man’s work in this direction we must not lose 
sight of the fact that he has not been the only operator; for often 
entire hedge-rows are of nature’s planting. On the brow of a 
bank, or at the sides of an old sunken lane, they frequently are so; 
remnants of once extensive aboriginal copses, gradually uprooted 
as agriculture progressed, until only the narrow strips remained, 
left simply to form a fence by the lane or above the bank, as the 
case might be. 
In judging of the indigenous character or otherwise of hedge-row 
growth we must also bear in mind that we often see truly native 
bushes rising up through a planted hedge of thorn or other species; 
their occurrence in such a position being due to the action of winds, 
or the agency of birds or other small animals. All things considered 
it is often no easy task to assign a hedge-row bush its true position 
as Native, Denizen, or Alien. Much discernment and nice observa- 
tion are required before deductions on the subject can be of any value. 
For purposes of botanical investigation I have divided the tract 
