CHAPTER VIII 



EVERGREEN COVERT 



There is nothing about which there is more loose 

 talk than in the matter of covert plants. One famous 

 sportsman tells people to put Privet where they want 

 covert near water — a most weedy and evil-smelling 

 shrub, besides bad covert, its rapid growth being its only 

 recommendation. It is a mistake to use a weedy bush 

 merely because it grows quickly. Most hardy shrubs 

 grow quickly enough, and some of the most rampant 

 growths are the soonest to go back. On the whole, the 

 best covert plants, especially for woods near the house, 

 are the native and other hardy evergreens. In the 

 choice of such plants their beauty should not be over- 

 looked, and things of offensive odour and other bad 

 qualities like the Privet should be rejected. 



Rhododendrons. There is a shrub which is hardy and 

 beautiful as an evergreen covert plant, fine in colour, 

 and of vigorous constitution. It is ' Cunningham's White ', 

 an old kind which, although called white, is a rosy-lilac 

 colour in bud. It is one of the best plants for growing 

 in any cold, or rough, or even clay soil, forming far 

 better covert than the pontic Rhododendron, and having 

 also the advantage that it can be bought on its natural 

 root in some nurseries. It is easily increased, and grows 

 in any soil. I have had a healthy group of it in clay 

 (part of the dug-out foundation of a building) for over 



