The Botanist's Companion Part 7

It forms a better cover for game than any other plant; and being very bitter, is not liable to be destroyed by any animal eating it down. An infusion of the leaves is frequently given as a vermifuge with good effect.

There is a smaller variety of this, much used for making edging to gravel walks in gardens.

110. CARPINUS Betulus. THE HORNBEAM.--This grows to a large tree, but is not of much account as timber: it is however very useful in forming ornamental fences, and is well adapted to this purpose from the tendency of its young branches to grow thick.

111. CLEMATIS Vitalba. TRAVELLER'S JOY.--A beautiful creeping shrub very useful to the farmers for making shackles for gates and hurdles, or withs for tying f.a.ggots and other articles. Whenever this plant is found in the hedges, &c. it is a certain indication of a ckalky under stratum in the soil.

112. CORNUS sanguinea. DOG-WOOD.--This is planted in pleasuregrounds as an ornamental shrub, and from the red appearance of the wood in the winter forms a beautiful constrast in plantations. It is also used by butchers for making skewers.

113. CORYLUS Avellana. THE HAZEL.--Is a well known shrub of large growth producing nuts, which are much admired. The Filbert is an improved variety of this plant. The farmers in Kent are the best managers of Filberts, and it is the only place where they are grown with any certainty; which appears to be owing princ.i.p.ally to the trees being regularly pruned of the superfluous wood. It is performed in the month of March when the plants are in bloom, and is the only time when the fruit-bearing wood can be distinguished.

114. CRATAEGUS Aria. WHITE BEAM-TREE.--Is a beautiful tree producing very hard wood, and is much in esteem for cogs of millwork and various other purposes.

115. CRATAEGUS Oxyacantha. THE QUICKSET, or WHITE-THORN.--This is in great request for making fences, and is the best plant we know for such purposes if properly managed. It is readily propagated by sowing the hips, or fruit, which does not readily grow the first season; it is therefore usual to bury them mixed with saw-dust, or sand, one year, and then to sow them in beds.

116. DAPHNE Laureola. SPURGE- or WOOD-LAUREL.--Is used in medicine; which see.

We have many species of Daphne which are very ornamental to our shrubberies and green-houses: these are propagated princ.i.p.ally by grafting; and the Wood-Laurel being hardy and of ready growth forms the stock princ.i.p.ally used. It is readily propagated by seeds, which in three years will make plants large enough for this purpose.

The plant in all its parts is excessively acrid. I remember a man being persuaded to take the leaves reduced to powder, as a remedy for Syphilis, and he died in consequence in great agony in a few hours.

117. DAPHNE Mezerium. MEZERION.--Is a very beautiful shrub, and is one of the earliest productions of Flora, often exhibiting its brilliant scarlet flowers in January and February. We have also a white variety of this shrub in the gardens. The bark and roots are extremely acrimonious, and are used in medicine.

118. ERICA vulgaris. THE COMMON HEATH, HEATHER, or LING.---This spontaneous produce of most of our sandy waste lands is of much usin rural oeconomy.

It is of considerable value for making brooms, and affords food to sheep, goats, and other animals; particularly to the grouse and heath-c.o.c.k. The branches of heath placed upright in a wooden frame form the couch of repose to the brave Highlander. It is also stated that an excellent beverage was brewed from the tops of this plant, but the art of making it is now lost. This is the most common of the species, but all the others have similar properties. They are very ornamental plants.

A numerous variety of heaths are brought from the Cape of Good Hope, and afford great pleasure to the amateur of exotic plants, being the greatest ornaments to our green-houses.

119. EUONYMUS europaeus. SPINDLE-TREE.--An ornamental shrub. The wood is in great request for making skewers for butchers, as it does not impart any unpleasant taste to the meat.

120. f.a.gUS Castanea. THE SPANISH CHESNUT.--This tree produces timber similar to oak in point of durability, and the bark also contains a considerable quant.i.ty of tannin. The Chesnut was in greater plenty in this country many years ago than at the present day; large forests are represented to have been in the neighbourhood of London; and we are led to believe such may have been the case, as many of the old buildings when examined have been found to be built of this timber. The fruit is used as a dainty at table; but the variety which is brought from Portugal and Spain is much larger than what are grown in this country.

The large kind imported from those countries is grafted, and kept on purpose for the fruit. It is an improvement to graft this variety by taking the scions from trees in bearing, and they will produce fruit in a few years and in a dwarf state.

121. f.a.gUS sylvatica. THE BEECH.--The timber of the Beech is valuable for making wheels, and is applied to many other useful purposes in domestic oeconomy. The seeds of the Beech are very useful for fattening hogs.

This tree affords many beautiful varieties in foliage, the handsomest of which is the Copper Beech, whose purple leaves form a fine contrast in colour with the lively green of the common sort.

123. FRAXINUS excelsior. THE ASH.--The wood of the Ash is considered the best timber for all purposes of strong husbandry utensils. The wheels and axle-trees of carriages, the shafts for carts, and the cogs for mill-work, are princ.i.p.ally made of this timber. The young wood when gown in coppices is useful for hop-poles, and the small underwood is said to afford the best fuel of any when used green. Coppice-land usually sells for a comparatively greater price according as this wood prevails in quant.i.ty, on account of its good quality as fuel alone.

124. HEDERA Helix. IVY.--A common plant in woods, and often planted in shady places to hide walls and buildings. The leaves are good food for deer and sheep in winter. The Irish Ivy, which was brought from that country, is a fine variety with broad leaves. It was introduced by Earl Camden.

125. HIPPOPHAE Rhamnoides. SEA BUCKTHORN.--This is a scarce shrub; but is very useful as a plant for forming shelter on the hills near the sea-coast, it having been found to stand the sea-breeze better than any plant of the kind that is indigenous to this country.

126. ILEX aquifolium. HOLLY.--A well-known evergreen of singular beauty, of which we have many varieties, both striped, and of different colours in the leaf. Birdlime is made from the inner bark of this tree, by beating it in a running stream and leaving it to ferment in a close vessel. If iron be heated with charcoal made of holly with the bark on, the iron will be rendered brittle; but if the bark be taken off, this effect will not be produced. Ray's Works and Travels by Scott.

127. JUNIPERUS communis. JUNIPER.--An evergreen shrub, very common on waste lands. The berries are used in preparing the well-known spiritous liquor gin, and have been considered of great use in medicine.

128. LIGUSTRUM vulgare. PRIVET.--A shrub of somewhat humble growth, very useful for forming hedges where shelter is wanted more than strength. It bears clipping, and forms a very ornamental fence. There is a variety of this with berries, and another nearly evergreen.

129. MESPILUS germanica. THE MEDLAR.--Is cultivated for its fruit, and of which we have a variety called the Dutch Medlar; it is larger than our English one, but I do not think it better flavoured.

130. PINUS sylvestris. THE SCOTCH FIR.--A very useful tree in plantations for protecting other more tender sorts when young. It is also now very valuable as timber:--necessity, the common parent of invention, has taught our countrymen its value. When foreign deal was worth twenty pounds per load, they contrieved to raise the price of this to about nine or ten pounds, and it was then thought proper for use; before which period, and when it could be bought for little money, it was deemed only fit for fuel. On the South Downs I know some plantations of this tree, which have been sold, after twenty-five years growth, at a price which averaged a profit of twenty s.h.i.+llings per annum per acre, on land usually let for sheep-pasture at one s.h.i.+lling and six-pence.

131. POPULUS alba. WHITE POPLAR. This is a very ornamental tree. The leaves on the under surface are of a fine white, and on the reverse of a very dark green; and when growing on large trees are truly beautiful, as every breath of air changes the colour as the leaves move. The wood of all the species of poplar is useful for boards, or any other purposes if kept dry. It is much in demand for floor-boards for rooms, it not readily taking fire; a red-hot poker falling on a board, would burn its way through it, without causing more combustion than the hole through which it pa.s.sed.