a vital, but not so very demanding part if they have
some botanical knowledge by recording (monitoring)
sites easily visited at regular intervals, noting
changes from year to year and month to month if
possible.
If a positive policy for hedgerows and verges is
possible instead of the familiar "Don't touch!"....
"Now look what you've done!" it might be based on
the following:
1. ancient boundaries.
2. links between established reserves such as
ponds, marshes or woods.
3. dramatic ecological contrast with the
surrounding countryside or providing
special habitats.
There is another factor that has nothing to do
with specialist interest or nostalgia for bygones.
Over and over again, in all parts of the country,
people who have made efforts to live in country
areas are suddenly realising that the nearby
countryside is not theirs. Places where they have a
right to walk are diminishing to the narrow strips
of land left between the efforts made in agricultural
productivity and provision for motoring necessitated
by their own demands. It is reassuring to recall
that hedgerows and verges were originally created
by man and, hopefully, could be man made again.
BOOK NOTES
I have recently come across three books which
should be of interest to our members. The first of
these is "Prehistory," by Derek Rose (Paladin, 1971,
80p). This has an introductory chapter which
discusses the rise of prehistory, and the theories
on the origin of man by which it was moulded and
which in turn it itself moulded. This is followed
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