134 OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES. 



of the East have still another objection, as firmly 

 cherished as any dogma they listen to on Sunday, to 

 wit, the barberry " blasts the rye." This faith is 

 indeed so firmly and persistently cherished that I have 

 been disposed to look for the source of it in some 

 tribe of aphides peculiar to the barberry, which by 

 juxtaposition may transfer its labors to the cereal. 



The native white-thorn remains and it has always 

 seemed to me that with proper nursing, education, 

 and development, much might be made of this as a 

 hedge-plant. The hornbeam, also, of our forests, is a 

 small tree, of profuse spray, bearing the shears ad- 

 mirably ; but, so far as I know, never as yet adopted 

 on a large scale for hedges. The green walks of the 

 gardens of Versailles demonstrate amply what its 

 European congener will suffer in way of clipping. 



In the way of evergreen hedge-plants we have 

 nothing to ask for from the nurserymen of Great 

 Britain. Both the arbor-vitae and the hemlock spruce 

 are admirably adapted to the purpose. The beauty 

 of this latter nothing can exceed, particularly in the 

 season of its first growth (early June), when its flossy 

 light green tufts hang over it like a great shower of 

 golden bloom. The arbor-vitas is perhaps more man- 

 ageable, and certainly less impatient of removal ; but 

 it can never become so effective. The Norway spruce 

 is also admirably adapted to hedge uses, and will 



