ARBORETUM ET FRUTICETUM 
BRITANNICUM. 
INTRODUCTION. 
Tuovuen, from our title, the Arboretum et Fruticetum Britan- 
nicum, the reader may expect to find chiefly a history and de- 
scription of the trees and shrubs which endure the open air in 
Britain, yet we mean to connect this history with that of the 
trees and shrubs of all similar climates throughout the world, in 
such a manner as to show what has been done in the way of 
introducing them, and what may be anticipated from future 
exertions. The Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum may, there- 
fore, be considered as a General History of the Trees and Shrubs 
of Temperate Climates, but more especially of those of Britain. 
Trees are not only, in appearance, the most striking and grand 
objects of the vegetable creation; but, in reality, they are those 
which contribute the most to human comfort and improvement. 
If cereal grasses and edible roots are essential for supplying food 
to sustain human existence, trees are not less so for supplying 
timber, without which, there could neither be the houses and 
furniture of civilised life, nor the machines of commerce and 
refinement. Man may live and be clothed ina savage, and even 
in a pastoral, state by herbaceous productions alone; but he can- 
not advance farther: he cannot till the ground, or build houses 
or ships, he cannot become an agriculturist or a merchant, 
without the use of trees. 
Trees and shrubs also supply an important part of the food 
of mankind in many countries; besides all the more delicate 
luxuries of the table, and the noblest of human drinks in every 
part of the globe. The fruit of the palms, and of other trees of 
tropical climates, are as essential to the natives of those coun- 
tries, as the corn and the edible roots of the herbaceous plants 
of temperate climates are to us. Wine, cider, arrack, and other 
liquors, are the products of trees and shrubs ; as are also our more 
useful and exquisite fruits, the apple, pear, plum, peach, orange, 
mango, and many others. Net oe in detail on the various 
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