2010 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



fitness for screen fences for sheltering gardens, nurseries, and young planta- 

 tions from the severities of the winter season. It may be trained to almost any 

 height ; and, by keeping it trimmed on the sides, it becomes thick of branch- 

 lets, and, consequently, of leaves ; which being by their nature retained upon 

 the plant after they wither, a hornbeam hedge occasions a degree of shelter 

 nearly equal to that given by a brick wall." {Plant, and Rur. Orn. y ii. p. 5*2.) 

 Boutcher also recommends it as a nurse, for its hardiness ; and because 

 he does not know " any useful timber tree that defends itself so stoutly 

 against the winds ; so that, being of quick growth, and clad in its numerous 

 leaves all the winter, it is certainly one of the fittest plants to nurse and rear 

 up other valuable or delicate trees." {Treat., &c., p. 58.) Hanbury says that 

 horses and rabbits are so fond of it, that they will never bark other trees till 

 the hornbeams are entirely destroyed. Evelyn recommends it to be planted 

 in deer parks, as he says that deer will not touch it, and will not even rub 

 their young horns against it. 



Hornbeam Hedges* In France, a trained hornbeam hedge, or charmille y as it 

 is called in that country, is formed in the following manner : The ground is 

 trenched one or two months beforehand. The plantation may be made either 

 with plants 3 or 4 years old, or 6 or 7. The first method is the least expensive, 

 and the most certain of success ; but the latter soonest produces an effect. 

 The plants, whether they are large or small, have their side shoots severely 

 cut in ; and they are planted in a single line, 6 in. or 8 in., or even 1 ft., 

 apart, according to the height which it is intended the hedge should be. The 

 plants are left to themselves for the first year. The second year, any strag- 

 gling shoots are shortened, and the vacancies are filled up, if any plants have 

 Failed. The third year, if the plants were tolerably large when put in, the 

 hedge may be regularly clipped, or sheared ; but, if they were small, the clip- 

 ping should not take place till the fifth year. In general, when the hedge is 

 wanted of a considerable height, the clipping should be postponed longer than 

 when it is wished to be kept low. With regard to the after-treatment, M. 

 Bosc recommends clipping the hedge only once every year, at midsummer, 

 for the same reasons which we have already given respecting clipping the 

 box. (See p. 1340.) A charmille, or clipped hornbeam hedge, 8ft. or 10ft. 

 high, should never be less than 8 in. or 1 ft. thick ; and in some cases they 

 may be 2 ft. thick. When the hedge becomes old, it is cut in to the stem, or 

 completely down to the ground; but the best way is to remove the plants, 

 and trench the ground to the depth of 3 ft. or 4 ft., filling up the trench with 

 fresh earth, before replacing them with young ones. In Westphalia, and other 

 parts of the north of Germany, Dr. Hunter, quoting from the German author 

 Agricola, tells us that the hornbeam is in great repute as a hedge plant : 

 " When the German husbandman erects a fence of hornbeam, he throws up 

 a parapet of earth, with a ditch on each side, and plants his sets (raised 

 from layers) in such a manner as that every two plants may be brought to 

 intersect each other in the form of a St. Andrew's cross. In that part 

 where the two plants cross each other, he scrapes off the bark, and binds 

 them closely together with straw. In consequence of this operation, the 

 two plants consolidate in a sort of indissoluble knot, and push from thence 

 horizontal slanting shoots, which form a living palisade, or chevaux de frise ; 

 so that such a protection may be called a rural fortification. These hedges, 

 being pruned annually, and with discretion, will, in a few years, render the 

 fence impenetrable in every part." (Hunt. Eve/., i. p. 141.) Layers are recom- 

 mended by Agricola in preference to seedlings, because the former are sup- 

 posed not to grow so high, and to be more bushy. 



In geometric Gardening, the uses made of the hornbeam appear to have 

 been very numerous. The principal was, to form high hedges, or paiisudes, 

 for dividing the garden into compartments ; which compartments were after- 

 wards diversified " into the star, the goose-foot, and walks winding variously for 

 the greater ornament of parks, labyrinths, and groves." (Ret. Gard., ii. 

 p. 741.) For the palisades, London and Wise direct the hornbeam plants to be 



