176 RHAMNUS CATHARTICUS. 
New York, and is cultivated for use and ornament in the various countries of 
Europe and of North America. 
The first cultivated tree of this species in the United States, of which we 
have any record, stood in the garden of the venerable Dr. Holyoke, in Salem, 
Massachusetts. It bore an abundance of fruit, which was long used by him, in 
his practice, as a cathartic. On the estate of Mr. E. Hersey Derby, in that 
town, there are several buckthorn-trees, from thirty to forty years planted, which 
have attained a height of twelve or fifteen feet, and bear an abundance of berries 
every year. 
Propagation, Culture, Uses, fyc. The Rhamnus catharticus, in common 
with most plants of its genus, may be easily propagated by seeds, or by cuttings 
and layers. It prefers a rich, moist soil, in rather a shady situation ; but it will 
thrive in any place where the current or gooseberry will succeed. It is culti- 
vated in Europe as an ornamental shrub, and is becoming of great utility in 
America as a hedge-plant, as will be seen by the following extract from Mr. Der- 
by's paper in the "Transactions of the Essex Agricultural Society." "In the 
year 1808, I happened to have some young plants which had come up from the 
chance-scattered seeds of the American buckthorn,^ and finding they had made 
a good growth in the nursery to which they had been removed, I determined to 
try to form a hedge of them, and I have been well pleased with the result. They 
were set out in 1809, and very soon became a fine hedge, of about twenty rods 
in length, which has remained so until the present time, [Sept. 1842] not a sin- 
gle plant having failed from it, nor have I ever known it to be attacked by any 
insect. This hedge being my first experiment with the buckthorn, I did not 
keep it down so closely as I have since found it expedient to do, and conse- 
quently it is not quite so impervious at the bottom as some of my younger hedges, 
which have been more severely pruned. Being fully satisfied that I had at last 
found the plant I wanted, I have, since that time, set out various hedges of it, at 
different periods, until I can now measure one hundred and sixty rods of them, 
all, in my opinion, good hedges ; and I do not hesitate to pronounce the buck- 
thorn the most suitable plant for the purpose that I have ever met with. It veg- 
etates early in the spring, and retains its verdure late in autumn. I have often 
seen it green after the snow had fallen. Being a native plant, it is never injured 
by our most intense cold, and its vitality is so great that the young plants may 
be kept out of the ground for a long time, or transported any distance without 
injury. It never sends up any suckers, nor is disfigured by any dead wood ; it can 
be clipped into any shape which the caprice or ingenuity of the gardener may 
devise ; and being pliable, it may be trained into an arch, or over a passage-way, 
as easily as a vine ; it needs no plashing or interlacing, the natural growth of the 
plants being sufficiently interwoven. It is never cankered by unskilful clipping, 
but will bear the knife to any degree. During the last winter, I found one of 
my hedges had grown too high, casting too much shadow over a portion of my 
garden, and wishing to try how much it would endure, I directed my gardener 
to cut it down within four feet of the ground. This was done in mid-winter, 
and not without some misgivings on my own part, and much discouraging 
advice from others ; but it leaved out as early in the spring as other hedges, and 
is now a mass of verdure. I have been applied to for young plants by persons 
who have seen and admired my hedges, and have sent them to various states in 
the union, and I have never, in any instance, heard of their failure. 
" My method of forming a hedge is to set the young plants in a single row, 
about nine inches apart, either in the spring or autumn ; if the latter, I should 
clip it in the folloAving spring, within six inches of the ground; this will cause 
* The writer believing it to be a native plant. 
