So also in the Barberry, the young juicy upright shoots which spring from the older branches have stout three to seven-branched prongs pointing downwards, of the most efficient character. Each is really a modified leaf and is found below each bud. Even the mere idea of an animal's tender lips or tongue tearing at these shoots from below gives one a momentary shudder. In the younger, wavy branches of the Barberry the spines are straighter or more diverging. The young leaves of the short bud above alluded to are also most efficiently protected by their spines. The Hawthorn has a curious arrangement of very long stout thorns, behind which the leaves are sheltered. The younger flexible branches have smaller spines, which become efficient in winter and tend to prevent animals from eating the bark. The Cockspur thorns are 4 to 5-1/2 inches long, and extremely like the spur of a gamecock. Bramble prickles are generally curved back in order to hook or cling to the branches of other trees, but any one who has tried to force his way through a clump of brambles knows the difficulty of doing so. The loops made by the branches fixing themselves in the ground (see p. 93) were at one time given credit for healing various diseases. Children in Gloucestershire used to be dragged backwards and forwards under these loops; in Cornwall also people afflicted with boils were made to crawl under them. Even cows when suffering from paralysis (supposed to be due to a shrew-mouse walking over them) were dragged through the Bramble-loop, in which case Professor Buckman remarks, "If the creature could wait the time of finding a loop large enough and suffer the dragging process at the end, we should say the case would not be so hopeless as that of our friend's fat pig, who, when she was ailing, had a mind to kill her to make sure on her."[84] The brambles and briers of Gilead and Ezekiel were probably brambles of which _Rubus discolor_ is common in Palestine,[85] and the Butcher's Broom (_Ruscus aculeatus_). This last plant is really of the Lily family, and its flat leaf-like branches end in a sharp spine. The rabbit does not eat it.[86] [84] Lindley's _Treasury of Botany_. [85] Ridley, _Pharmac. Journ._, May 19, 1900. [86] Maxwell, _Memories of the Months_, First Series, 1, pp. 74-76. Amongst foreign thorny and spiny plants it is very difficult to make a selection. Theophrastus (one of the very earliest botanists--see p. 37) describes a class of shrub very common in Phrygia, in which the leaves are produced at the base of the young shoots, which latter end at the top in branch thorns. These thorns, therefore, entirely cover the foliage and keep off that vegetable demon the goat. Some of the Crucifers, Roses, Composites, Labiates, etc., take on this habit in goat-infested countries.[87] [87] Kerner, _l.c._