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310 ON INCI-OSINO l.ANU

slopes and mountain faces of many parts of Scotland , and inthe highest elevations where any natural wood is to be found.“ Thorns thrive to nearly twenty feet high at Wanlockhead,the most elevated village in Dumfries-shire, or even in Scot-land , being more than 1500 feet above the level of the sea.One of the highest situated thorn-hedges in Ayrshire, on thefarm of Waterhead, near the source of the Nith, is also oneof the strongest and most luxuriant in that county. Thetrunk of a white-thorn, about a mile or two from the villageof Wanlockhead, at four feet from the ground, is nearly fivefeet in circumference Frequently on a mountain face, apatch of natural white-thorn protects a seedling ash, or othernursling tree, in its bosom from the pasturing flock, showingthat both thorns and such trees would grow and thrive insuch situations, if planted and secured from injury.

The foregoing instances of thorns thriving in such elevatedsituations, and in soils that had never been cultivated or a-meliorated by human industry, even exposed to sheep andother animals, naturally suggest practical reflections to theplanter. Yet, when planted injudiciously in soils not suita-ble to their growth, or which have not been properly pre-pared for their reception, thorns do not thrive; neither dothey answer when planted on soils of very different qualityin the same line of fence. They suffer injury likewise, if illtreated in removal from the nursery, or when planted in aninjudicious manner, or at an improper season.

The common mode of propagating white thorns, ( for beingtransplanted into fences, is by sowing the seeds in nursery-beds, transplanting them from the Seed-bed into training-beds,and setting them into fence-rows at three or four years old;yet it may admit of some doubt, if this be the best method ofproceeding. When the soil in the line of fence is of goodquality, it answers very well; if otherwise, the plants, whichhave been pushed into luxuriance in the nursery, finding lit-

Report of Ayrshire.