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Arboretum, or Trees of Norfolk," is another 

 example. Where we can distinguish these, 

 it is due to the general outline of the tree 

 having been preserved ; the character of the 

 foliage is the same in all. The difficulty 

 lies in the vast amount of labour which is 

 required to make a faithful portrait, and the 

 artist is only too ready to escape from this toil 

 by dashing off the sketch with his conventional 

 foliage. Determined on one occasion to 

 superintend every step, and secure accuracy, 

 we accompanied our artist into the green 

 wood, and saw him take an unfinished, but 

 as accurate and characteristic a sketch of 

 a tree as man could wish. " I '11 fill it in 

 at home," says he. " Very good," said we ; 

 but it was not very good, it was veiy bad : 

 for when we received the copy, we found, to 

 our amazement and disgust, that the character 

 of the tree was gone. The old convention- 

 ality had usurped its place, and it was only 

 when we took the copy back to the artist, 

 and got out the open-air sketch, and chal- 

 lenged him to point out where he got this 

 and where he got that, that we at last extorted 

 from him a reluctant admission that he had 

 taken a few liberties to improve the effect ! 

 We have no doubt Loudon chafed under 

 such contrarieties. In his days, they were 

 more remarkable than in ours, for of late 

 years artists have begun to recognise the 

 fact that they cannot improve upon nature ; 

 that the more they attempt to do so, the 

 further they go astray. The state of scientific 

 art has greatly changed since Loudon's time, 

 and, indeed, since our own experiences, to 

 which we have referred. Photography has 

 come in to guide art — to keep her within the 

 strict limits of truth, and prevent exaggeration. 

 To no branch of science will its services be 

 more valuable than to Arboriculture. Grow- 

 ing trees are almost the only organic beings 

 which cannot be submitted to the test of the 

 rule and the line. By the micrometer, the 

 most minute organisms, invisible not only to 

 the naked eye, but unobservable by any but 

 the highest magnifying powers of the micro- 

 scope, can be accurately measured and 

 figured without the aid of photography : so 

 may eveiy other animal or vegetable being ; 



but growing trees we cannot reach, we must 

 trust to the eye of the artist ; and charac- 

 ters which to the botanist seem impossible 

 to be overlooked, are invisible to his unedu- 

 cated eye. But he is never at a loss ; in goes 

 his conventional dash : like Shakspeare's 

 barber's chair, it fits all comers — the tall pine, 

 the squat yew, the brawny oak, any tree or 

 every tree. Thanks to photography, we are 

 no longer at his mercy. Every branch, 

 every twig, every leaf is now lined down with 

 an accuracy passing the skill of a trigonome- 

 trical surveyor ; and we have now means by 

 which engravings that may be depended on 

 as exact representations of trees can be pro- 

 duced. What is now wanted, is a new work 

 on trees, in which advantage shall be taken 

 of this great medium of illustration — a work 

 bringing Loudon's subject down to the state 

 of the science at the present day, correcting 

 any errors that are found in his book, and 

 describing any new species that have been 

 introduced or discovered since his time. 



This is no easy task, and few there be who 

 are qualified to undertake it. It is generally 

 known that one eminent botanist, not less en- 

 dowed Avith perseverance than Loudon, and 

 much more distinguished as a man of science- 

 Professor Koch, of Berlin— has been for some 

 time engaged in the preparation of such a 

 work. When it will be completed, or how 

 far it will meet our desiderata when completed, 

 we cannot tell. His occupations are nume- 

 rous and engrossing, and he writes us that he 

 is looking forward to the summer and autumn 

 to make fresh observations and researches, 

 and to the winter for time to bring his work 

 towards completion. 



Meanwhile, we think we may be doing 

 good service to the reader, as well as to 

 the science, if we attempt in these pages 

 to supplement, to a certain extent, Mr 

 Loudon's work in the directions we have in- 

 dicated, where the progress of science has 

 left it behind. 



^^'e propose, therefore, to devote a certain 

 portion of this magazine to the subject of 

 Dendrology, and of Arboriculture. Under 

 the former head, an account of the hardy 

 trees and shrubs which are of most importance 



