OF FOREST-TREES. 



Ill 



Thus might Barberries now and then be also inserted among our hedges, CHAP. VI. 

 which with the Hips, Haws, and Cornel-Berries, do well in light lands, ^"•^^'^ 

 and should rather be planted to the south than north of west, as usually 

 we observe them. 



Some, as we noted, mingle their very hedges with Oaklings, Ash, and 

 Fruit-trees, sown or planted, and it is a laudable improvement ; though 

 Qthers do rather recommend to us sets of all one sort, and wiU not so 

 much as admit of the Black Thorn to be mingled with the White, 

 because of their unequal progress ; and, indeed, timber-trees set in 

 the hedge (though contemporaries with it) do frequently wear it out : 

 and therefore I should rather encourage such plantations to be at some 

 yards distance, near the verges, than perpendicularly in them. Lastly, if 

 in planting any of the most robust forest-trees (especially Oak, Elm, 

 Chestnut,) at competent spaces, and in rows, you open a ring of ground 

 at about four feet distance from the stem, and prick in quickset plants, 

 you may, after a while, keep them clipped, at what height you please : — 

 they will appear exceedingly beautiful to the eye, prove a good fence, 

 and yield useful bush, bavin, and (if you maintain them unshorn) Hips 

 and Haws in abundance ; this should, therefore, especially be practised, 

 where one would invite the birds. 



In Cornwall they secure their lands and woods with high mounds, and 

 on them they plant acorns, whose roots bind in the looser mould, and 

 so form a double and most durable fence, encircling the fields with a 

 coronet of trees. They do likewise, and that with great commendation, 

 make hedges of our Genista Spinosa, prickly Furze, of which they have 

 a taller sort, such as the French employ for the same purpose in Bre- 

 tagne, where they are incomparable husbands. 



FURZE. 



FURZE is to be sown (which is best) or planted of the roots in 

 a furrow : if sown, weed till it be strong ; both tonsile, and to be 



1 ULEX Ceuropjeus j foliis villosis acutis, spinis sparsis. Lin. Sp. PI. 1045. Common 



FURZE. 



It is of the class and order Diadelphia Decandria. \ 

 Mr. Evelyn very warmly recommends this shrub not only for hedges, but for fodder 



P 2 



