202 MR FORSYTH OX GAME PRESERVES AXD FENCES. 



threatens of itself to overthrow and revolutionize the plants now 

 used as game-cover, for it is as hardy as the Highland fir, pro- 

 duces a fair amount of flowers to recommend it in the first place, 

 and this is succeeded by a wholesome berry, which, besides feed- 

 ing game, is very useful for tarts ; and this berry contains per- 

 haps 50 or 100 seeds, by which the plant can be multiplied to 

 any extent, not to speak of its being so easily obtained from 

 cuttings and layers ; and as this plant will make shoots 3 feet 

 long in one season, it has only to get a beginning, and it will 

 readily establish itself in the edges of woodland, and adjoining 

 the rides and drives, where its pendent flowers will every year 

 attract the more attention as the plant gets higher ; for all the 

 tribe of Fuchsias requires to be looked up to to be seen to advan- 

 tage. The common Laurel makes a substantial cover, and 

 though its fruit is of no importance, it must ever be of tlie first 

 class among plants for ornamental shrubberies within enclosures 

 where cattle cannot reach its poisonous leaves. Gaultheria Shal- 

 lon has been highly praised for game food and cover ; but I 

 have not been able to discern its superiority : in fact, I consider 

 that the common Sage is quite as good as the Gaultheria for 

 these purposes ; for the Sage produces seeds as large as yellow 

 mustard-seeds, and the plant grows much quicker than Gaul- 

 theria and to a greater height, and is infinitely more easy to 

 increase ; but this is not all, since the day may soon come for this 

 plant to be turned to great account, for I have heard it said that 

 the Chinese were surprised to find us sending to China for tea- 

 leaves when we had sage at home : add to this, that the sage 

 will grow in either loam or peat, whereas the Gaultheria re- 

 quires peat, and, like the soil it thrives in, its leaves have a dark 

 and dull hue : the sage, on the contrary, has a summer mantle of 

 the most beautiful sea-green, and this is changed in autumn to 

 a warm grey, and in this latter dress the plant contrasts well 

 with glades and groups of plants of other shades of colour. The 

 lowly shrub Thyme makes a good sward for green food in 

 winter, and its silvery striped variety contrasting with the yellow 

 or golden thyme are pleasing objects, and form the lowest link 

 in the chain where woodland dies away in grass or gravel, &c. 

 The Box, though a beautiful shrub in itself, makes but a sorry 

 cover, on account of the close and thick-set habit of its spray 

 and branches. The Privet is well known, and of it I may 

 remark, that it is just better than nothing. Although I have 

 succeeded many years ago in striking cuttings of Arbor vitaj in 

 phials of water, and have recently obtained those beautiful trees 

 by hundreds from cuttings in common earth, I should decidedly 

 object to the introduction of either of these, or the Junipers, for 

 they are all too close and stiflT, and could at best but form a 



