PART V.
PLANTS IN THEIR HOMES
CHAPTER XXVIII.
HEDGES AND DITCHES
We do not see plants growing under quite natural conditions in the hedges and ditches, because they are put there by man in the first instance, and are continually kept in order by him. All the same, the hedgerows, which are so common in England, deserve a little study. They are within the reach of every one, and there we may often find many wild plants growing sheltered by the actual hedge.
The principal plant is, naturally, the one which forms the hedge, and this is very commonly the hawthorn; but, growing under it, and over it, and on the banks on either side, there are many others which are generally quite self-planted and truly wild. Of the bigger ones, the white clematis or Travellers’ Joy is very common in the south of England, and grows climbing all over the hedge, and often covering it with its white flowers. We noticed this plant among those which are special climbers (p. [105]), and we can often see very well on the hedges how it climbs over tree and shrub, and supports itself on them.
A smaller plant, of somewhat similar habit, is the goosefoot. This has long, weak stems, which grow up amidst the other vegetation and so support themselves, while its leaves are arranged in whorls round the stem, and are narrow and rough, and help to keep the plant from slipping down. Notice also its fruits, how rough they are, and how they cling to everything. They are beautifully adapted to catch on to every passer-by, whether man or animal, and so to get carried to a distance where the seeds may grow.
A character of the ordinary plants growing in the hedges is the tendency they often have to form very long, straggly stems, which are too fine and weak to support themselves, but which are quite strong enough to grow up through the hedge and bear leaves, as they are partly held up by the other vegetation. You may frequently find plants which are usually only a foot or so high, and able to support themselves very well, growing up through the hedge to a height of two or three feet, and having thin, limp stems with long spaces between the leaves (see fig. 136). These plants have some of the characters both of those grown in the dark and of climbing plants, because the thick-set hedge keeps off the light from the low-growing parts, so making them straggly, and at the same time gives them the support they need if they grow rapidly out into the light, and do not build strong stems. Very often you may find plants of the same species as those that grow so tall in the hedge, growing in the shorter turf away from it, and there only reaching their usual height.
Fig. 136. Two Toadflax plants growing near together: A, on the bank by a hedge; B, among the plants of the actual hedge.