TJiL Ccmnirv Gcntlcinaiis Jllanrziiic 



179 



plantattans anli Dcbge? 



INTRODUCTION. 



THIRTY years ago a great work was 

 finished. In the year 1838 Loudon's 

 " Arboretum Britannicum" was published. It 

 was the crowning work of many years of 

 labour and perseverance, and, out of all Mr 

 Loudon's voluminous publications, remains 

 the most pemianent memorial of his know- 

 ledge and ability. No greater praise can be 

 given to it than to say that it is still the 

 standard work on the subject of Arboriculture, 

 notwithstanding that the seven and twenty 

 years which have since passed have been 

 more prolific in the discovery of new plants 

 and trees than any similar period that could 

 be pointed to in the past history of Botany. 

 We never look at this work without paying 

 involuntary homage to the amount of labour 

 of many kinds which it discloses, and the in- 

 domitable spirit of work which enabled Mr 

 Loudon to overcome the many difficulties 

 against which he had to contend. Having 

 lost one arm, and being to a great extent de- 

 prived of the use of the other, he supplied 

 their place by an amanuensis, or rather we 

 should say by two — one for each hand : for 

 it is recorded of him that he sometimes had 

 recourse to this extraordinary aid, and while 

 walking up and down his study dictated to 

 both, and that so clearly and continuously 

 that their pens were never at rest. 



Great as that work is, however ; unspeak- 

 ably valuable as a perfect quarry of materials, 

 and in much as applicable to the present 

 state of science as it was on the day of its 

 publication, it is not all that the arboricul- 

 turist now requires. Time has gone on, and 

 in its course new discoveries have been made 

 Avhich have left Mr Loudon's work in some 

 respects behind : not only has its value been 

 affected by discoveries of new plants, by dis- 

 coveries in physiology, discoveries in syste- 



matic botany, altering our old notions of 

 affinity and arrangement, but even discoveries 

 in the arts have aff"ected it injuriously. The 

 four last volumes of the " Arboretum" consist, 

 as the reader knows, of copperplate illustra- 

 tions of the different shrubs and trees treated of. 

 These are, perhaps, the least satisfactory part 

 of Mr Loudon's work. There is a wondrous 

 family resemblance in them all. Not only 

 are they all trees, but one is tempted to say 

 that they are all the same trees. It would 

 not be true, but there is sufficient resemblance 

 to suggest the idea. The correct delineation 

 of a tree is one of the most difficult tasks to 

 which an artist can be put. Artists have got 

 a sort of conventional scribble, which, by 

 courtesy, is supposed to represent the foliage 

 of a tree, and this is introduced on all occa- 

 sions, and for all trees indifferently. The 

 pains and trouble it takes to get them to make 

 it botanically correct, and to seize its charac- 

 ter, nobody who has not tried can well be- 

 lieve. That Loudon suffered from this diffi- 

 culty is obvious, and his case was no solitary 

 one. In the folio edition of Smith's magni- 

 ficent " Sylva," the oaks are beautifully ren- 

 dered, but that beauty is obtained at the 

 sacrifice of verisimilitude in most of the rest. 

 Scarcely anything escapes the infection : even 

 the Fortingale yew looks like an oak. Selby's 

 " Forest Trees" is an example of the same 

 thing. It is illustrated by the most lovely 

 woodcuts of trees that it is possible to 

 conceive, charming little vignettes engraved 

 by Williams, who for the minute beauty 

 of his execution of woodcuts has, we 

 think, never been surpassed ; but lovely 

 as they are, almost any one would do 

 for any other. Is it a sycamore or 

 an elm ? — an oak or a chestnut ? The 

 coarse etchings in M'Grigor's " Eastern 



