FEB.] THE NURSERY. 



However, upon the whole, I prefer the early spring sowing, and 

 have generally practiced it with the best success. 



Many of these plants, and indeed the greater numbers, if the 

 ground be good, will be fit for planting into the face of ditches, 

 the autumn or spring following, and the entire of them that time twelve 

 months; but if they are intended for forming upright hedges, the 

 strongest of the year old plants, must, in the month of March, or 

 very early in April, be drawn out of the seed beds, their long tap- 

 roots cut off, so as to shorten them to the length of five or six inches, 

 and then planted into nursery rows, about two feet asunder, and the 

 plants to be about six inches distant in these rows ; having there, 

 two or three years growth, they will be in prime condition for that 

 purpose ; the remaining plants may be taken up the spring following, 

 and treated in the same way. 



It often happens that an after growth of young plants, arises in the 

 seed-bed the second year, particularly when the haws have not been 

 well prepared, these seldom come to any thing; but if you pursue 

 the method already prescribed, you may depend on a good and 

 general crop the first year. 



The various kinds of haw-thorns that, on account of their spini- 

 ness, might suit for live hedges, are the following; all being indige- 

 nous in the United States, except the first, which is the kind princi- 

 pally used in Europe for that purpose. 



1. Crateegus Oxyacantha, or Common European Hawthorn, or 

 Whitethorn. Leaves obtuse subtrifate serrate. 



With a robust trunk, branching from the bottom upwards, to ten 

 or fifteen feet high, the branches armed with spines, leaves obtuse, 

 trifid and sawed, with numerous clusters of flowers from the sides 

 and ends of the branches, succeeded by bunches of dark-red fruit, 

 commonly called haws ; flowers two styled, sometimes three or 

 four. 



2. Crat&gus coccinea, or Great American Hawthorn. Leaves 

 cordate-mate, gash-angled, smooth; petioles and calyxes glandular ; 

 floivers Jive-styled. 



This rises, when detached, to the height of near twenty feet, 

 with a large upright trunk, dividing into many, strong, irregular, 

 smooth branches, so as to form a large head. Leaves large and 

 bending backwards ; they are about four inches long, and three and 

 a half broad, having five or six pair of strong nerves, and become of 

 a brownish red in autumn. The flowers come out from the sides 

 of the branches in umbels or large clusters ; they are large, make 

 a noble show early in May, and are succeeded by large fruit of a 

 bright scarlet colour, which ripens in August or September. The 

 branches are marked with irregularly scattered dots, thorns axil- 

 lary, stout, spreading very much, from the rudiments of the 

 branches. Peduncles pubescent, corymbed. 



3. Cratagus Crus galli, or Cockspur Hawthorn. Leaves sub- 

 sessile, glittering, coriaceous ; calytine leaflets, lanceolate subserrate ; 

 flo-vers, two-styled. 



Stem strong, ten to fifteen feet high, bark of the stem rough, 

 ^f the branches smooth and reddish. Leaves lanceolate, three 



