228 General Notices. 



must be kept clear of weeds. If properly attended to, the seedlings will 

 attain a height of from six inches to twelve inches, the first year. The 

 following spring the strongest plants may be either transplanted into drills, 

 or placed where they are intended to remain as a permanent fence. The 

 smaller ones should be left in the seed-drills or beds for another year, when 

 they may be treated in the same manner. In forming a live fence, the 

 ground ought to be prepared as soon as the snow disappears, by making a 

 trench about two feet broad, and a spade in depth. Along the centre of this 

 trench the young plants should be put about six or eight inches apart, and 

 afterwards well watered and firmly trodden in. Care should be taken to 

 protect the young plants from cattle, and to keep them clear of weeds. 

 The second year after planting, the thorns should be headed down to within 

 six or ten inches of the ground, and each year afterwards switched up on 

 both sides to a centre ridge, so as to produce the shape generally termed 

 sow-backed ; hedges trained in this form, being less liable to be destroyed 

 by snow resting upon them, than when cut flat at the top." If the method 

 here recommended be properly attended to, Mr. M'Nab has not the least 

 hesitation in saying that an excellent hedge of native thorns may be acquired 

 five or six years after planting. At several places he saw the indigenous 

 thorns employed as a fence ; at least, they had been planted with that in- 

 tention, and had attained a considerable height, but from want of proper 

 attention to pruning and weeding, they were so slender, that easy access 

 might be obtained between each stem. From such instances of misman- 

 agement, an erroneous opinion seems generally to prevail that hedges will 

 not succeed in America. " But," he very properly remarked, " if newly- 

 planted hedges in Britain were equally neglected, there can be no doubt 

 that they would soon degenerate, and become no better than those which I 

 observed in the United States and Canada." {Gard. Chronicle, 1SA5, ji. 

 171.) 



[The above remarks are part of a paper read before the Botanical Soci- 

 ety of Edinburgh, by Mr. M'Nab, Jr., who travelled in the United States 

 in the summer of 1843. They are worthy of attention, and if his direc- 

 tions are followed, hedges of our native thorn, equalling those of England, 

 may surround every dwelling in New England. — Ed.] 



Cultivation of Crassula (now called Kalosanthes) . — Presuming that 

 small plants of not more than 6 inches in height can be procured in 3 or 5 

 inch pots, with 4, 6, or more strong shoots upon each, the latter must be 

 stopped by pinching off their points about the end of February. To facili- 

 tate the production of side shoots, and also to accelerate their development, 

 remove carefully three or four pair of leaves from the top part of each 

 branch, and in about a fortnight the young branches will be perceptible. I 

 may here remark that in future, when I refer to the stopping of the plants, 

 1 also wish the leaves to be removed from where branches are expected, as 

 it will be found that by this means shoots are much more certainly and 



