FOREST TREES. 



141 



English Hawthorn (C oxycantha), was introduced and planted 

 here quite extensively by the En^Ush colonists, and many at- 

 tempts were made to establish hedges of this thorn, but it was 

 soon discovered that when close pruned, as in Great Britian, 

 the leaves and young twigs were scorched by the hot sun in 

 summer, and hedges of this kind were pronounced a failure. 

 Still every few years there would be a revival of the interest in 

 the English Hawthorn for hedges, and others would try it, and 

 for a few years the plants would appear to be doing well, but 

 close ijruning, drouths, and insects visually combined as 

 enemies of such hedges, but even at this time the remnants of 

 those old hedges are to be seen in our Eastern States. But 

 there is no difficulty in raising good specimen plants of this 

 species, when planted singly and in a moderately moist and 

 rich soil. There are a large number of ornamental varieties de- 

 scribed in nurserymen's catalogues, and cultivated in gardens. 

 There are varieties with single white, pink, and crimson 

 flowers. Also those with double flowers of the same colors, 

 all really beautiful little trees, well worthy of a i)lace in every 

 garden where there is room to plant them. The varieties are 

 propagated by budding and grafting upon stocks of the com- 

 mon European or native species. 



The Evergreen Thorn (O. Pyracantha), of Southern Europe, 

 has become naturalized and run wild in some of the Middle 

 and Southern States, and in the latter is considered a most ex- 

 cellent hedge plant, as it is a compact growing, very spiny 

 shrub, with shining, evergreen leaves. White flowers in spring, 

 succeeded by clusters of small orange colored berries. There 

 is also a variety with white berries. The evergreen thorns are 

 hardy in our Northern States, but the leaves turn brown or 

 are entirely destroyed in winter, for this reason they are not 

 popular in cool climates. 



CYRiLLA, Linn. 



A genus of two species of small evergreen trees, with op- 

 posite leaves, and white, five-petaled flowers, in terminal or 

 lateral racemes. Only one species found in the United States. 



Cyrilla racemillora, Walt.— Leaves oblong, three or four inches 

 long, on very short petioles. Flowers numerous, in long, 

 straight racemes. Fruit a round one or two-seeded drupe, 

 tipped with a conspicuous, thick or slender point. A small 

 tree, sometimes thirty feet high, along the shady banks of 

 streams and ponds, from North Carolina to Florida. 



