120 ARTIFICIAL ADAPTATIONS OF 



which of them can be grown for that purpose, and kept in hand- 

 some and serviceable shape with the least annual expense and 

 liability to accidents or diseases. Hedges may be made of the 

 honey locust, but the labor of restraining their sprouts and suckers 

 is about as profitable as that of training a Bengal tiger to do the 

 work of an ox. The beautiful osage orange partakes somewhat of 

 the same wild character, but has been subdued with great success, 

 and is likely to prove the most valuable of live fencing in the 

 Middle and Western States. But we see no advantage for merely 

 decorative purposes on suburban grounds in confining a deciduous 

 tree of such erratic luxuriance within monotonous hedge-limits, 

 while evergreen trees of greater beauty, which naturally assume 

 formal contours, can be more easily grown and kept in order for 

 the same purpose. 



Hedges, formidable by reason of their thorns, are only re- 

 quired for suburban places, on boundary lines contiguous to alleys 

 or streets, where trespassers are to be guarded against. In 

 such localities there is probably nothing better than the osage 

 orange. 



The beautiful English hawthorns, with their variety of many- 

 colored blossoms, will develop their greatest beauty and bloom in 

 other than hedge-forms. The buckthorn so much lauded twenty 

 years ago for a hedge-plant, is one of the poorest and homeliest of 

 all. The Fiery or Evergreen thorn, Crcetegiis pyracanthus, is a 

 variety with very small leaves, almost evergreen, which assumes a 

 hedge-form naturally, is formidable with thorns to resist intrusion, 

 and covered with red berries in autumn. It grows slowly, and will 

 make a charming low hedge. The Japan quince will also form a 

 fine hedge with sufficient patience and labor. Its growth is ex- 

 ceedingly straggling, and the wood so hard to cut that it is expen- 

 sive to keep in shape ; but when grown to the proper size and 

 form, its showy early bloom and glossy leaves, hanging late, make 

 it one of the prettiest. The common privet belongs to a differ- 

 ent class. It is a natural hedge-plant ; strikes root freely from 

 cuttings, grows quickly, and its wood cuts easily. The leaves 

 appear early and hang late, and though not of the most pleasing 

 color, they form a fine compact wall of verdure. It is, therefore, 



