COLLECTIONS AND RECOLLECTIONS. 
3(57 
H orehound. —In the spring of 1830, having had occasion to 
burn some weeds in my garden, principally docks and nettles, I un¬ 
intentionally left the ashes in the place where they were burnt, and, 
in the course of five months, I was surprised to find a young liore- 
hound plant growing out of the centre. How this happened, 1 am 
quite at a loss to determine, for no liorehound, to the best of my 
knowledge, has ever grown there. Feeling a little interested in the 
discovery, I tried it again the following year, and the result was the 
same. I next made a fire of weeds of any kind, but was unsuccess¬ 
ful. In the spring of last year, I again tried the docks and nettles 
as before, and soon had a fine plant. I repeated the experiment in 
the autumn of last year, and now there is a fine plant springing up. 
Now, sir, I only tell you the facts, the reason I am entirely at a loss 
to explain, but perhaps some of your intelligent correspondents can 
throw some light on the subject. Charles Samuel Smythe. 
The Holly as a Hedge-Plant.— It is well known, that the 
holly makes a very beautiful and durable hedge, but it is seldom 
used for that purpose, because of its slow growth. I have, however, 
seen it thrive with unusual rapidity, and the whole mystery appears 
to consist in the time of planting. Thousands of hollies are every 
year destroyed by transplanting them in winter; if removed at mid¬ 
summer, they scarcely sustain a check. W. W. 
Uses of the Horse-Chesnut Tree. —Let me call your atten¬ 
tion to a fact but little known, viz. that in Cashmere, where it is 
wild in the woods, the fruit of the horse-chesnut is used to feed pigs. 
The wood is also serviceable for turners and coopers, and sells well. 
These circumstances will tend much to encourage the planting of 
this beautiful tree. It thrives near water, and on wet soils. It has 
always been considered useless, and it was supposed that only deer 
would eat the fruit. I have tried pigs, and find they will eat it. S. 
Rumex Alpinus, Monks Rhubarb, probably so called from its 
growing at One-Ash-Grange, near Monyash, Derbyshire, where it 
is said some Monks resided, and where it now grows in an unculti¬ 
vated state. Parkinson, in his Paradise in Sole, published in 1656, 
gives a good print of it as garden Patience, or Monks Rhubarb. 
There is given with it Rhaponticum Vevum, of which last Dr. 
Matthew Lister sent to him a root, from abroad, which first grew 
with him, before it was ever seen or known in England. Rumex 
Alpinus, is only introduced into our British botany, by Hooker, in 
his Brit. Flora, published in 1830. 
Specimens of each are in W. Watson’s Bath Garden. 
Bukewell, April 1 6th, 1833. W. WATSON; 
