THE POETRY OF TREES. 



509 



magnificence. In the arrangement of the build- 

 ings, salubrity, tranquility, and horticultural or- 

 nament, were all studiously and tastefully com- 

 bined. The choicest fruits of a tropical climate, 

 the Orange, the Citron, the Ananas, with many 

 others unknown to us, solicited at once the sight, 

 the smell, and the taste; while artificial fountains 

 of water, preserving the coolness of the air, and 

 the verdure of the earth, rendered it a spot of pe- 

 culiar attraction. In laying out the grounds also, 

 such was the designer's skill, and the magnificent 

 scale of the plantations and grass-plats, that no 

 fewer than thirteen bastions and turrets flanked 

 and defended the gardens, and promoted alike se- 

 clusion and security. And in order to complete 

 at once, and give the immediate effect of wood to 

 so great a change on the face of nature, he re- 

 moved to the spot, no fewer than seven hundred 

 cocoa trees of various sizes, of which some rose 

 to thirty, some to forty, and some to fifty feet 

 high, to the lowermost branches. 



" Of the success of the improvement last men- 

 tioned, no one, but the Prince himself, entertained 

 the slightest expectation. Yet such, says Bar- 

 laeus, was the ingenuity, as well as persevering 

 labor displayed in the work, that the whole was 

 accomplished with the most perfect success. Not- 

 withstanding the immense size of the trees, which 

 were of seventy and eighty years' growth, they 

 were skilfully taken up under the Prince's super- 

 tendence. They were then placed on carriages 

 provided with wheels, and conveyed over a space 

 of from three to four miles in extent, and ulti- 

 mately transported on rafts, across both the rivers, 

 to the shores of the Island. On being planted 

 there, so favorable were both soil and vegetation 

 in that genial climate, that they immediately 

 struck root, and even bore fruit, during the first 

 year after their removal. Thus, adds Barlseus, 

 the truth of the ancient adage was for once dis- 

 proved, which says that ' It is impossible to trans- 

 plant an old tree w r itb success.'" 



In sections third, fourth, and fifth, Sir Henry 

 gives a full, learned and scientific development of 

 the new theory, or principle of the art, occupying 

 about 120 pages. Section sixth treats of the pre- 

 paration of the soil, for open dispositions of trees, 

 and close plantations. Section seventh, prepara- 

 tion of trees for removal. Section eighth, taking 

 up and transportation of the trees. Section ninth, 

 planting of the trees in their new situations. 

 Section tenth, treatment of the trees subsequently 

 to removal. Section eleventh, expense attending 

 the foregoing operations. The eleven sections 

 occupy about 350 pages, and there are about 120 

 pages of explanatory notes, and an appendix. 

 Let Sir Henry speak for himself: 



" To such persons especially, and to all men 

 possessed of landed property, the immediate ef- 

 fect of wood must appear a considerable object, if 

 any method can be devised to obtain it with suc- 

 cess and certainty. What, then, would such per- 

 sons say, were they informed that so obscure a 



practice as that of transplanting could do this, 

 that an entire park could be thus wooded at once; 

 and forty years of life anticipated? The fact is 

 that the possibility of the improvement, and much 

 more, has been verified by pretty entensive ex- 

 perience. Groups and single trees have been 

 scattered everywhere in such a park at pleasure, 

 in all sorts of soils and exposures, and applied to 

 the composition or the improvement of real land- 

 scape. Instead of lopping and mutilating the 

 trees, and sometimes altogether decapitating them, 

 (as has been the general practice,) the grand 

 point has been gained of preserving their tops en- 

 tire; so that, with subjects of whatever magni* 

 tude, no loss of either spray or branches is suf- 

 fered; and, what is still more important, no loss 

 of health and vigor in the trees, excepting for a 

 short period, after having undergone the process 

 of removal. 



" But, besides the various combinations and de- 

 tails of the landscape, it has been found also quite 

 practicable to apply the art to the most general 

 purposes of utility and shelter, whether in large 

 towns, or in the country, by the transplanting of 

 copse or underwood of any size or species. This 

 is either formed alone into large masses, or it is 

 intermixed with grove or standard trees, as cir- 

 cumstances in either situation may require. By 

 these means, some of the most interesting objects, 

 both agricultural and ornamental, have been ac- 

 complished, at a very moderate expense, and 

 brought within the reach, not only of the great 

 and opulent, but of any person of limited for- 

 tune. 



To those who never intend to plant or trans- 

 plant a tree in their lives, but who nevertheless 

 know a tree w'hen they see it, many parts of the 

 book will be as amusing as the description in a 

 poem or fairy tale, To those who w r ould fain 

 transplant, but know not how to set about it, it 

 will explain how sylvan scenes may be suddenly, 

 and at moderate expense, spread over the barest 

 wild ; and to those who love to study the wonder- 

 ful works and laws of nature for their own sakes, 

 and, in delighted reverence of that power, won- 

 der, and goodness, in w T hich they were all made, a 

 work of which the object is to show art, availing 

 itself of nature, will afford much of that high kind 

 of gratification, which attends the enlargement or 

 elucidation of our knowledge of any of the princi- 

 ples, agencies, or operations, forever busy in 

 beautifying the face of the external world. 



The only real magic lies in understanding and 

 learning something of the laws according to which 

 nature breathes and works. The enchanter's 

 wand is buried many fathoms deep in the sea. 

 But science has unveiled, and art constructed, 

 engines and machines, that do all and more than 

 the enchanters of old. A man would have for- 

 merly thought himself witched — and he would 

 liavi- been right in thinking so — who, looking out 

 of his bed-room window in the morning, might 

 have beheld a noble tree standing on a plat, which 



