44 The Pyracanthay or evergreen-thorn. 



The early and extraordinary fecundity of the Pyra- 

 cantha, is a circumstance of much importance to the 

 hedger. To shew this in the following point of view 

 may perhaps savour of the extravagant, it is neverthe- 

 less strictly true. Since the commencement of my 

 nursery here, I have furnished plants of the hedge- 

 thorn, sufficient, at the distance which they ought to 

 be set, only, to plant upwards of 100 miles of hedging. 

 Had each of these been a Pyracantha, they would have 

 Been enough to have run 1000 miles of a close hedge ; 

 Avhich in a very few years, say ten, would have been 

 capable of furnishing seed and plants sufficient to have 

 enclosed every arable field in the United States. 



Every one who has attempted to raise thorn-hedges 

 in this country, must know how difficult it is to obtain 

 seed even for small experiments, of the several species 

 of haw thorns, indigenous to America, and if I had 

 not by accident discovered, in the year 1795, that kind 

 which is a distinct species of the Crataegus Cordata, 

 or of the two haw thorns with heart shaped leaves, one 

 of which I have named the American hedge-thorn, I 

 am certain I never should have been able to procure 

 a sufficiency of seed from all the other sorts in this 

 neighbourhood, to have answered my intention. But 

 however plentiful the berries of the hedge-thorn gene- 

 rally are, in comparison to those of the other species of 

 haw thorns, its fecundity is far inferior to the Pyracan- 

 tha, which cannot only be propagated by seed, but 

 every plant in a hedge of it may, in the third or fourth 

 year of its age, be made, by laying, to produce ten, 

 twenty, or more plants, with good roots, and conse- 

 quently afford materials for planting a new hedge, ten 



