HOW TO GROW GOOD FENCES. 229 



and early leafing particularly recommend it ; and 

 besides, though not the commonest, we cannot help 

 thinking it to he the hardiest variety, and one that 

 would he likely to succeed in soils where the ordinary 

 one would be very slow in growth. 



We have occasionally met with it in nursery- 

 plantations, as well as in hedge-rows, where it is 

 distinguished at a glance by its more freely growing 

 twigs and brighter coloured, quite smooth leaves ; 

 so also, but more rarely, we have met with the 

 Glastonbury thorn in the hedge-row, which we look 

 upon as a variety of the glabrous thorn, a specimen 

 of which is now before us (January, 1865), with both 

 leaves and flowers well in bud, in the midst of a deep 

 snow and a severe frost. 



This variety is fabled to have sprung from Joseph 

 of Arimathaea's staff, which he is supposed to have 

 planted in the soil at Glastonbury, on Christmas-day, 

 prior to the foundation of the abbey at that interesting 

 place ; and we have found some natives, both here 

 and in Herefordshire — whither perhaps the thorn had 

 spread with sorts of apples, — who adduce the budding 

 of this thorn, which is usually after our present 

 Christmas-tide, as an evidence that Old Christmas is 

 the right day. 



But we must not be too far led away by the 

 legendary lore, much less the poetry connected with 

 the whitethorn. 



We come now to a description of the methods to 

 be observed in planting fences, having taken for 

 granted that quicks be employed for the purpose, and 

 that we encourage the production of the sort best 

 adapted to our purpose, — an end which, we conceive, 



