HED 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



HED 



661 



may be laid up to the height of ten or twelve feet; and if 

 these hedges are kept narrow at the top, that there may not 

 be too much width for the snow to lodge upon them, they 

 may be rendered very close and thick, and being of a very 

 good green colour, will make a fine appearance. The Alater- 

 nus was formerly much more cultivated in the English gardens 

 than at present. It was often planted to form hedges ; but the 

 branches are too pliable, being frequently displaced by strong 

 winds, which render these hedges unsightly; they also shoot 

 very irregularly and thin, so that the middle of the hedge is 

 frequently open and wide, and only the sides of them can be 

 kept tolerably close, and that must be by often clipping them. 

 If we add to this, their being frequently laid or broken down 

 by snow in the winter, it must be deemed an improper plant 

 for this purpose. The Ilex, or Evergreen Oak, is also planted 

 for hedges, and where these are designed to grow pretty tall, 

 it is a fit plant for the purpose, because it is a plant of large 

 growth, especially the sort which is most common in England; 

 for there are two sorts of them, which grow in the south of 

 France and Italy, that are of much humbler growth, and 

 better adapted to this purpose, especially when a high hedge 

 is not wanted ; but they are not common in Great Britain. 

 Wheu these hedges are planted very young, and kept close- 

 trained from the beginning, they may be very close from the 

 ground to the height of twenty feet or more, but must always 

 be kept narrower at the top than below, that too much snow 

 mav not lodge upon and break them down in the winter. 

 There are also some persons who have planted the Pyracan- 

 tha, or Evergreen Thorn, Juniper, Box, Cedar of Virginia, 

 Bay, &c. as also the Atriplex, or Sea Purslane, the Furze, the 

 Rosemary, and several other plants, for hedges; but the five 

 sorts first mentioned having very pliant branches, which will 

 require to be supported, and the last being often destroyed 

 by severe trost, are unfit for this purpose ; nor are there any 

 other sorts of evergreen plants in the English gardens, which 

 are so well adapted for hedges as those we have already 

 pointed out. The deciduous trees which are usually planted 

 to form hedges in gardens, are the following sorts : The 

 Hornbeam, which is most esteemed, especially in places 

 where they are not required to be very high, or not wanted 

 to grow very fast ; for this plant while young docs not make 

 so great progress as many others : as it is of slower growth, 

 the hedges formed of it may be kept neat with less trouble 

 than mo-t other plants will require, and the branches 

 naturally growing very close, they will make one of the 

 closest hedges of all the deciduous trees ; hut as the leaves 

 of this tree co'itinue upon the branches all (he winter, and 

 until the buds in the spring force them ofF, they have a bad 

 appearance during the winter season. In Westphalia, and 

 other parts of Germany, the Hornbeam is in great repute for 

 hedges. The German husbandman throws up a parapet of 

 earth, with a ditch on each side, and plants his sets, raised 

 from layers, in such a manner as that every two plants inter- 

 sect each other; there he scrapes off the bark, and binds 

 them close together with straw. The plants consolidate, and 

 form a living palisado, which being pruned annually with 

 discretion, will in a few years make an impenetrable fence. 

 It is not uncommon in Germany to see the sides of high-roads 

 thus guarded for many miles together. The Hornbeam is not 

 delicate in point of soil ; will put out strong lateral shoots 

 wiihin three inches of the ground ; and is of quick growth. 

 The Beech is also a very proper tree for this purpose, having 

 the same good qualities as the Hornbeam; but the leaves of 

 this comiuue late in winter upon the branches, when they 

 will have a bad appearance; besides, the litter which is 

 occasioned by Iheir leaves gradually falling most part of the 

 VOL. i. 56. 



winter, prevents the garden from being made clean a great 

 while longer than if there were none of these planted. The 

 Small-leaved English Elm, is also a proper tree for tall hedges : 

 if these be planted young, and kept closely clipped from their 

 first setting out, the hedges may be trained up to the height 

 of thirty or forty feet, and be very close and thick the whole 

 height. But when these trees are planted for this purpose, 

 they should not be crowded so close together as they gene- 

 rally are: b}' which method, when the trees have stood some 

 years, if they have thriven well, their stems will approach so 

 near each other as that few branches can be maintained 

 below, whereby the bottom of the hedge will be naked ; there- 

 fore they should not be planted closer together than seven 

 or eight feet, or if they be ten feet it will be still better, from 

 the ground upward. The Dutch Elm was formerly in great 

 esteem for hedges, being quick of growth, and thriving in 

 such soils as the English Eltn would not grow in ; but the 

 wretched appearance which these hedges made, after they 

 had been growing a few years, caused them to be very gene- 

 rally discontinued, for a more unsuitable plant was never 

 introduced into gardens. The Lime-tree has also been 

 recommended for hedges, and in some of the old gardens 

 there were many planted with this tree, which, for a few 

 years after planting, made a tolerable appearance, especially 

 when they grew upon a moist soil ; but after they had stood 

 some years, they grew very thin at bottom, and by being 

 sheared at the top, they were rendered very stubby and un- 

 sightly : their leaves growing very thinly upon the branches, 

 and these frequently turning of a black disagreeable colour, 

 and falling oft very soon in the autumn, and sometimes in the 

 summer in dry seasons, has brought these trees into so much 

 disrepute, that few persons at present will make use of them 

 lor this purpose : nor should any of the very strong shooting 

 trees be applied to this use ; for the more they are cut the 

 stronger they will shoot, and of course will appear very 

 unsightly ; besides, the ofien cutting of the hedges occasions 

 great trouble and expense, and frequent litters in gardens. 

 The Alder is frequently planted for hedges, and where the 

 soil is moist, there is not any of the deciduous trees equal to 

 it for this purpose ; for the leaves are of a lively green, con- 

 tinuing fresh till late in the autumn; and when they decay 

 their litter is soon over, for they all drop in a short time. 

 There are, besides the trees above mentioned, many of the 

 flowering shrubs which have been planted to form hedges; 

 such us Roses, Honeysuckles, Sweetbriar, &c. but these 

 make a bad appearance, being more difficult to train; and 

 if they are cut 10 keep within compass, their flowers, which 

 are their greatest beauty, will be entirely destroyed. But as 

 these are but of low growth, they are not proper to plant 

 where the hedges are to be of any height. The taste in 

 gardening has been greatly improved of late years; clipped 

 hedges have been almost excluded, and it is to be hoped 

 thai tlu-y will soon be wholly banished, as both troublesome 

 and unnatural. 



Hedwigia ; a genus of the class Octandria, order Mono- 

 gynia. GENERIC CHARACTER Calix: perianth one-leafed, 

 cup-shaped, four-toothed: teeth minute, ovate, sharp, upright. 

 Corolla: monopetalous, tubulous; tube the length of the 

 calix, narrower at top ; border quadrifid ; the clefts ovate, 

 sharp, upright, converging Stamina: filamenta eight, broad, 

 inserted into the base of the corolla, incumbent on the ger- 

 men; antheree minute, oblong, sharp, converging above the 

 Stigma. Pistil: germen conical, eight-streaked, superior; 

 style none ; stigma blunt. Pericarp: tiicoccous, (composed 

 as it were of three ovate-acuminate capsules,) large, three- 

 celled. Seeds: nuts solitary, ovate, acuminate, one side 

 8 F 



