Forest Trees of Europe^ as Elements of Landscape, 37 



as determined in 1 789 : but the latter is now too obsolete to 

 be very useful to the tyro. In our own language the only 

 work that can be consulted upon the subject with advantage 

 is the Flora Scotica of Professor Hooker, in which the charac- 

 ters of the natural orders of Scottish plants are concisely 

 indicated by Mr. Lindley. 



[The foregoing forms a part of the introduction to our En^ 

 cyclopcedia (f' Plants, Part 11., Natural System. In our next 

 Number we shall proceed to give a general view of the divi- 

 sions and subdivisions of vegetables according to this system, 

 in doing which we shall give figures of all the principal genera, 

 and more especially of those species which are of most usual 

 occurrence in Britain, in order to render this superior mode 

 of studying botany as easily and universally understood as 

 possible.] 



( To be continued.) 



Art. VIII. The principal Forest Trees of Europe, considered as 

 Elements of Landscape. By J. G. Strutt. 



There is no defect so common in painted or engraved 

 landscapes, as the want of distinctive character in the repre- 

 sentations of trees. With the exception of Constable, Nasmyth, 

 Robson, Strutt, and a few others, most artists appear to con- 

 tent themselves with producing variations of a few general and 

 vague forms of masses of foliage, trunks, branches, and spray : 

 it seems to be enough for them to produce a tree, without at- 

 tempting to represent any particular species ; or considering 

 that to give a true idea of nature, the spectator ought to be able 

 to distinguish the sort of tree in the picture, with the same 

 facility with which he distinguishes it in the reality. Why trees 

 should not be represented with the same truth and fidelity as 

 animals, buildings, or other objects, there can be no good 

 reason assigned ; and the only way of accounting for it is, by 

 the general residence of landscape painters in cities, and the 

 very little attention paid by most of them to natural history as 

 a science. Were this study to enter into the education of the 

 landscape painter, as much as that of general history enters 

 into that of the historical painter, we should not so frequently 

 have to regret, in the works of our first artists, not only viola- 

 tions of truth and nature in the kinds of trees, but in their 

 situations in regard to soil, surface, water, and other trees or 

 plants. A little knowledge of botany would prevent artists 

 from putting spring and autumnal plants in flower or fruit in 



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