OF rOREST-TREES. 91 



I dare pronounce it to be one of the most proper and ornamental trees CHAP, 

 for walks and avenues of any growing. 



Pity it is they are so abused in the hedges, where the lower branches 



if they are not constantly watered and protected with a shade ; which at once shews the 

 expediency of pitching on a spot where such a conveniency is natural. 



If these cuttings are planted in August, they will take root before winter, especially 

 if they have shade, and water in dry weather ; but they should remain undisturbed till the 

 spring twelvemonth following, in order to acquire strength to be planted in the nursery. — 

 During the summer, they will require no other trouble than watering in dry weather, and 

 keeping clean from weeds, and by the autumn, they will have made a shoot of perhaps 

 a foot or more in length. In the beds, nevertheless, they should remain till the spring, 

 when they should aE be carefully taken out, and planted in the nursery, as was directed for 

 the seedlings. 



When these trees are intended to form a large plantation, any time during the winter 

 will be proper for the work, though I would recommend the month of October as the most 

 favourable season. The ground ought to be prepared for their reception by ploughing ; 

 and they should be planted in holes made all over it, at one yard asunder. When they begin 

 to touch each other, do not immediately thin them, but suffer them to remain unthinned 

 two or three years longer ; by which means they will draw one another up to re^-ular 

 stems. When you begin to thin them, it must be done sparingly, and in small quantities, 

 only casting out a weakly plant here and there, to make room for the more vigorous shooting 

 of the others, lest the cold, entering the plantation too much at once, should retard its 

 growth, if not wholly destroy it. 



The danger of losing these plants is only when they have been used to grow close, and 

 the cold is suffered to rush in upon them all of a sudden ; when planted on bleak or exposed 

 places singly, they seldom suffer from the cold. Let the plantations, therefore, be thinned 

 with caution. 



The Laurel is now so naturalized to us, as to grow well in almost any of our soils 

 or situations ; so that plantations of this tree may be made in any place where there 

 is a conveniency. In Italy there are numerous woods consisting entirely of these trees; 

 and though England at present cannot boast of many plantations of this kind, yet his Grace 

 the Duke of Bedford has set a noble example to men of fortune, at Woburn, where he 

 has planted one hill solely with Laurels, which thrive exceedingly; as do those also 

 which are mixed in great quantities with the other evergreens, throughout his whole 

 plantations, 



A water distilled from the leaves of this tree is one of the most speedy and deadly poisons 

 in nature, as appears from the experiments of the ingenious Abbe Fontana, inserted in the 

 70th vol. of the Phil. Trans, of London. 



Besides, the common Laurel, there is another kind entitled by Tournefort, Inst. 628, 



