DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 183 



species employed should all be as distinct as possible, to 

 give the whole as much variety as can be obtained in 

 a limited space, such trees should be selected as will not 

 only be ornamental, but combine some other charm, 

 association, or interest. Among such trees, we would by 

 all means give the Osage orange a foremost place. It has 

 the additional recommendation of being a fine shade tree 

 and of producing an excellent and durable wood * 



The stout growth and strong thorns of this tree have 

 been thought indicative of its usefulness for the making of 

 hedges : a method of fencing, which sooner or later must 

 be adopted in many parts of this country . and from the 

 experiments which we have seen made with plants of the 

 Osage orange, we think it likely to answer a very valuable 

 purpose ; especially in the middle and southern states. 

 The Messrs. Landreth of Philadelphia have lately offered 

 many thousands of them to the public at a low rate, and 

 we hope to see the matter fairly tested in various parts of 

 the Union. 



A rich deep loam is the soil best adapted to the growth 

 of this tree ; and as it is rather tender when young (though 

 quite hardy when it attains a considerable size) it should, 

 as far as possible, be planted in a rather sheltered situation. 

 A dry soil is preferable, if it must be placed in a cold 



* A very superb effect may be produced with this tree, by cutting it 

 severely back for several years, and compelling it, as the English cull it, to 

 stole, by sending out a dozen leading shoots, instead of one ; a plant treated in 

 this way, becomes, after a few years, a gigantic bush, round-headed, and most 

 luxuriant, and when covered with its golden fruit, peeping out from amidst its 

 exquisitely green foliage, it is the most superb floral ornament to a lawn that 

 can be conceived. We recollect a surprisingly fine specimen of an Osage 

 Orange treated in this way, at the late Dr. Edmondston's, near Baltimore, 

 where a plant about twenty-four years old measured in circumference, one hun- 

 dred and sixty -five feet ! the limbs lying about with a profusion of growth 

 positively wonderful, and covered with fruit. II. W. S. 



