182 PHEASANTS 



growth, while all four have the common 

 disadvantage of slow growth. 



MARGINAL TREES 



Hawthorn (Cratcegua Oxy- The Anglo-Saxon haeg-thorn 

 acantha), indigenous. or hedge-thorn clearly in- 



dicates its customary use. 

 Will attain a height of 

 40 feet under natural 

 growth. The familiar 

 crimson berries stay long 

 on the naked branches and 

 are a fair food for game ; 

 not proof against rabbits. 



Willow, Huntingdon (Salix Of rapid growth ; makes 

 alba), indigenous. good shelter in poor, wet 



soils and marshy places. 



The golden, purple and scarlet willows 

 are varieties of the above, and if regularly 

 cut over the young growth makes a 

 pretty bit of colour in winter. The late 

 John Simpson produced a natural seedling 

 variety called the Game-Covert willow, 

 which he claimed would flourish in the 

 driest and poorest soil, where no other 

 willow could hope to hold its own, and 

 make perfect cover in the second year. 

 The stock of this willow is cultivated at 

 the Craigmillar Nurseries near Edinburgh, 

 and if it be as rapid in growth and as in- 

 different to soil as is claimed for it, this 



