HEDGES. 



244 



HEDGES. 



spring leaves, though they are very injurious, 

 and often fatal to them. 



Box and Privet. The same objection 

 attaches to two other plants, which make 

 very useful and ornamental hedges the 

 box and the privet. Both these should be 

 kept out of the way of cattle. In gardens 

 and pleasure-grounds they may be used 

 with very good effect, for they bear clipping 

 almost better than anything else, and are 

 very neat and compact. The privet mixes 

 well with the thorn, where greater strength 

 is required than can be had by using privet 

 alone. 



Cydonia Japonica. Those persons who 

 have travelled in Holland and Belgium 

 have no doubt noticed the neat manner in 

 which small enclosures of land are separated 

 from each other by their thrifty and indus- 

 trious owners. The hedges are trained 

 along stakes and rods placed for the pur- 

 pose, and to these the plants of which 

 they are composed are tied with pieces of 

 osier. In this way every slender branch is 

 laid in, and, as they are made to cross each 

 other frequently, a regular network is 

 formed. These hedges, when in leaf, are 

 very close and tight, they take up very little 

 room, and form scarcely any harbour for 

 small birds. Many of our ornamental 

 shrubs might be trained in this way to 

 form hedges the Cydonia Japonica, fre- 

 quently but erroneously called Pyrus 

 Japonica, for instance, which is close, 

 quick-growing, and bears a most beautiful 

 flower. This plant is as hardy as any 

 native British plant, and very easily pro- 

 pagated. There can be no doubt that if 

 young plants were wanted for ornamental 

 garden hedges, they would soon be pro- 

 duced at a very reasonable rate. - .*" 



Cotoneaster. The cotoneaster, again, 

 may be employed for the same purpose and 

 in the same way. Cutting-- of cotoneaster 

 taken in August and put into the shade, 

 will be rooted well enough for planting out 



next spring. When planted, they should 

 be about I foot or i foot 6 inches apart, 

 and have a trellis of stakes or hazel rods to 

 support them. This hedge will require, at 

 first, a good deal of attention in training 

 and entwining the branches ; but when 3 

 or 4 feet high it may be clipped and kept 

 in shape. 



Veronica. The different veronicas also 

 make firm hedges, and are very handsome 

 when in flower. Strong bushes may be 

 planted 3 feet apart and trained to stretched 

 wires, which, in this case, are better than 

 stakes. In Guernsey the hydrangea is 

 sometimes used to form a hedge to a grass 

 field, and nothing could be more beautiful. 

 Both this and the veronica, however, are 

 not sufficiently hardy to admit of their 

 being used except in the extreme south. 



Aucuba. Such, however, is not the case 

 with the aucuba, which is so hardy that we 

 imagine it might be used in most parts of 

 England. It is easily cultivated and might 

 be trained to stretched wire. 



Barberry. An American writer recom- 

 mends the common barberry, Berberis 

 vulgaris, as a hedge-plant. " A hedge- 

 plant," he says, " to become popular, must 

 be perfectly hardy and easy to propagate. 

 It should also be vigorous enough to grow 

 well in ordinary soil without manure. It 

 should be thorny to keep cattle off, and 

 low enough to require little or no pruning. 

 The common barberry combines these 

 qualities better than any plant that I am 

 acquainted with. It is remarkably hardy, 

 thriving well in a great variety of soils, and 

 is said to live for centuries. It has a 

 shrubby habit, growing from 6 to 10 feet in 

 height, yellowish thorny wood, leaves in 

 rosettes, yellow flowers on drooping race- 

 mes, and scarlet oblong berries, very acid, 

 but making delicious preserves. We have 

 a barberry hedge," he continues, " in our 

 grounds at Wallingford, Connecticut, 24 

 rods long, and nine years old, from the 



