382 THE CHERRY TREE. 
when they should be sown. If the seeds are committed to the 
ground at the time of their becoming ripe, they generally 
spring during March, when the young plants require protec- 
tion, as they are apt to suffer by late frosts. If the crop of 
seedlings is close, they should be transplanted at the end of 
the first season’s growth ; but if they have sufficient room in 
the seed-bed, they may be safely left till they complete their 
second year’s shoots, and then transplanted into nursery lines, 
where they should stand so far apart as to prevent the foliage 
of one plant pressing on another. After remaining two years 
in lines, they are fit to be permanently placed. 
Of all the seasons recommended for transplanting laurels, 
and evergreen shrubs in general, September is the best. The 
Portugal laurel is frequently grown from cuttings, treated as 
recommended for the common laurel, but those produced from 
seeds form the handsomest plants. The Portugal laurel 
forms a very compact and ornamental evergreen hedge, well 
adapted for breaking the influence of wind. It admits of 
being pruned into shape, and forms a suitable boundary to 
the garden or parterre. 
Early in the present century the north of Scotland possessed 
many fine specimens of the Portugal laurel. One of the largest 
stood on the lawn of Gordon Castle. It had a trunk eleven 
feet in circumference ; it was nearly thirty feet high, and the 
diameter of its head was fifty-four feet. In favourable seasons 
these trees ripened their seeds abundantly ; and it is worthy of 
remark that the plants raised from them have proved far 
hardier than imported seedling plants, or those plants grown 
from imported seed: thus trees grown from Scotch seed con- 
tinue to give the clearest evidence, during our severest 
winters, of the great importance of acclimatation. 
