ME. FOKSYTH ON GAME PRESERVES AND FENCES. 201 



all germinated in six days. To the roots of those in the soil on 

 the bottom of the pit, water was given every three or four days ; 

 under this treatment they seemed to do better than without water, 

 but they all died in a week or two. Two more plants are still 

 under treatment with a copious supply of water and a slight 

 shade ; and they are now about 4 inches high, producing spiny- 

 looking stems. 



What the issue of the experiment may be it is impossible to 

 foresee ; and these memoranda are published chietly for the pur- 

 pose of attracting attention to the existence of this fruit, in the 

 hope that others will attempt to grow it, and report to the Society 

 their success. For there now remains no problem in Horticulture 

 more difficult to solve than the way of preparing skilfully our 

 artificial climates for the inhabitants of that heated atmosphere, 

 intense light, heavy dews, and barren soil of Southern Africa, 

 where the nails of the hand curl back and split in the season of 

 dryness. 



XXXI. — Game Preserves and Fences. Part the First. By 

 Mr. Alexander Forsyth, C.M.H.S., Gardener to the Earl of 

 Shrewsbury at Alton Towers. 



(Communicated June 3, 1846.) 



The species of trees and shrubs that are the most valuable for 

 game-cover are unquestionably the evergreens, since they yield 

 shelter when it is most wanted. Some species of evergreens not 

 only yield shelter and a hiding-place for game and birds of song 

 at all times ; but, moreover, supply food, and that at the scarcest 

 tim.e of the year, namely, in winter and early in the spring. Per- 

 nettya mucronata, for example, is now in the middle of April 

 covered with berries. Cotoneaster microphylla, a truly elegant 

 shrub, of the easiest culture imaginable, is now loaded with 

 flowers and fruit. The larger growing cranberry ripens plenty 

 of fruit as large as the berries of the grape-vine, very late in 

 the autumn ; and of these berries the birds are so fond, that they 

 seldom will permit a ripe fruit to remain for the table, unless it 

 be covered with a net. The Holly glitters with its rosy crop at 

 Christmas. The Yew-tree is seldom found empty of fruit. The 

 Gorse bursts its pods in the breeding season for the chickens of 

 the wild fowl. The Scotch-fir, and indeed most of the cone- 

 bearing trees, have always grain in store, for the seeds remain a 

 year or two on the trees after they are ripe. The berries of the 

 Mahonias are produced in such profusion, that they are used to 

 feed domestic poultry. Fuchsia discolor, from Port Famine, 



