128 



tbrougliout tlie season, they must be kept clear of weeds. If proper- 

 ly attended to, the seedlings will attain a height of from six to twelve 

 inches the first year. The following spring the strongest plants may 

 be either transplanted into drills, or placed where they are intended 

 to remain as a permanent fence. The smaller ones should be left in 

 the seed-drills or beds for another year, when they may be treated in 

 the same manner. In forming a live fence, the ground ought to be 

 prepared as soon as the snow disappears, by making a trench about 

 two feet broad and a spade in depth. Along the centre of this trench, 

 the young plants should be put about about six or eight inches apart, 

 and afterwards well watered and firmly trodden in. Care should be 

 taken to protect the young plants from cattle, and clear off the weeds. 



" The second year after planting, the thorns should be headed 

 down to within six or ten inches of the ground, and each year after- 

 wards switched up on both sides to a centre ridge, so as to produce 

 the shape generally termed sow-backed. Hedges trained in this form 

 being less liable to be destroyed by snow resting upon them, than 

 when cut flat at the top." 



If the method here recommended be properly attended to, Mr. 

 M'Nab has not the least hesitation in saying that an excellent hedge 

 of native thorns may be acquired five or six years after planting. At 

 several places he saw the indigenous thorns employed as a fence ; at 

 least they had been planted with that intention, and had attained a 

 considerable height; but from want of proper attention to pruning 

 and weeding, they were so slender that easy access might be obtained 

 between each stem. From such instances of mismanagement, an er- 

 roneous opinion seems generally to prevail, that hedges will not suc- 

 ceed in America. " But," as Mr. M'Nab very properly remarks, " if 

 newly planted hedges in Britain were equally neglected, there can be 

 no doubt that they would soon degenerate, and become no better than 

 those which I observed in the United States and Canadas." — Wm. 

 W. Evans. 



BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



March 7, 1845. — Edward Doubleday, Esq., F.L.S., Vice-president, 

 in the chair. 



Various donations to the library and herbarium were announced. 



Read, a paper from G. H. K. Thwaites, Esq., being a " List of 

 Grasses found in the neighbourhood of Bristol, (within a distance of 

 six miles in every direction from a common centre." — G. E. D. 



