THE NURSERY. 



55 



W e see the reverse of this rule exemplified in too 

 many of our public nursery- grounds, where the 

 plants are forced, by richness of soil and warmth, as 

 in a hot-bed, and thereby acquire a delicacy of con- 

 stitution which renders them very unfit for the 

 bleak moorlands, where the future destiny of most 

 of them is cast. We must, however, be on our 

 guard against falling into the opposite error. The 

 top or brow of a high eminence, for example, liable 

 to run dry in summer, and exposed to the unmiti- 

 gated violence of every wind that blows, would be 

 as improper for the purpose as the richest and most 

 sheltered situation. In the latter, the plants would 

 grow too delicate; and in the former, it would be near- 

 ly impossible to rear seedlings at all. Some kinds of 

 trees there are, indeed, which, when once they have 

 acquired roots, will grow almost on solid rock, as 

 well as in places much more elevated, than any in 

 which it would be possible to raise agricultural pro- 

 duce. But, in raising plants from the seed, we 

 must bear in mind that the roots are to be acquired, 

 a process which does not succeed well, where the si- 

 tuation is lofty, or the land either extremely hard 

 or poor. A nursery, therefore, though the artificial 

 shelter of walls and hedges should be avoided, ought 

 not to be on very elevated ground ; and though the 



