514 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



pruning almost to any extent, and may be trained to grow as 

 tall or as low and bushy as may be required. 



It may be propagated by layers, by shoots, or by seed. The 

 following method is recommended by Hunter, the editor of Eve- 

 lyn, as successful in raising from seed : — " The seeds being ripe 

 in October, let a dry day be made choice of for gathering them. 

 As these grow at the extremity of the branches, it would be 

 tedious to gather them with the hand ; they may, therefore, be 

 beaten down by a long pole, having a large winnowing sheet, 

 or some such thing, spread under the tree to receive them. 

 When you have got a sufficient quantity, spread them in a dry 

 place for a few days; then having procured a spot of rich gar- 

 den ground, and having the mould made fine by digging and 

 raking, let it be raked out of the beds about an inch deep. 

 These beds may be four feet wide, and the alleys a foot and a 

 half. After the mould is raked out, the earth should be gently 

 tapped down with the back of the spade, to make it level ; then 

 the seeds should be sown, at about an inch asunder, all over the 

 bed, gently pressing them down, and covering them about an 

 inch deep. In the spring of the year, the young plants will 

 make their appearance ; when they should be constantly kept 

 clean from weeds, and gently watered in very dry weather. In 

 this seminary, they may stand for two years, when they will be 

 fit to plant in the nursery ; at which time they should be care- 

 fully taken up, their roots shortened, and the young side-branches, 

 if they have shot out any, taken off. They must be planted in 

 the nursery ground in rows, two feet and a half asunder, and 

 one foot and a half distant in the rows. There they may stand 

 till they are of proper size to be planted out for good ; observing 

 always to dig between the rows every winter, and constantly to 

 keep the ground free from weeds." 



As plants raised from seed are of comparatively slow growth, 

 the French gardeners, according to Du Hamel, employ the fol- 

 lowing mode of propagation, which may be easily practised in 

 our native forests, where this tree is remarkable for the abund- 

 ant shoots from the stumps. They cut an old tree close to the 

 ground, which soon sends up a multitude of shoots. " Among 

 these, they throw a quantity of soil which they allow to remain 



