INTRODUCTION. 9 
have an opportunity of correctly ascertaining the names of such 
as they already possess, but of supplying themselves with cuttings 
or plants of such sorts as they may not have in cultivation. The 
purchasers of trees, by always using the nomenclature of the 
Arboretum Britannicum, and being able to refer from it to the 
living specimens from which our engravings were taken, will at - 
once insure certainty as to the kinds they obtain; and stimulate 
the nurserymen to accuracy, in regard to the names of those 
plants which they possess and propagate, and to the cultivation 
of a greater number of species and varieties. After the pub- 
lication of our Work, it will be the fault of the nurseryman 
-alone, if his nursery do not contain plants of all the species and 
varieties which we have figured and described. 
Many persons, when recommended to plant, reply: * Of what 
use is it to plant at my age? I can never hope to live to see 
my plants become trees.” This sort of answer does not, at first 
sight, appear surprising, if we suppose it to come from a person 
of sixty or seventy years of age; but we often hear it even from 
men of thirty or forty. In either case, such an answer is the 
result of a vulgar error, founded on mistaken and prejudiced 
notions. We shall prove its incorrectness by matters of fact. 
In the year 1830, there were many sorts of trees in the arbo- 
retum of Messrs. Loddiges which had been planted exactly ten 
years, and each of which exceeded 30 ft. in height. Most of 
these trees have since been cut down for want of room; but we 
have the names and the measurement of the whole of them. 
There are, also, at the present time (December, 1834), many 
trees in the arboretum of the London Horticultural Society’s 
Garden at Chiswick, which have been only ten years planted, 
and which are between 30 ft. and 40 ft. in height. Why, then, 
should any one, even of seventy years of age, assign as a reason 
for declining planting, that he cannot hope to live to see his 
plants become trees? A tree 30 ft. high, practically speaking, 
will effect all the general purposes for which trees are planted : 
it will afford shelter and shade; display individual beauty and 
character ; and confer expression on landscape scenery. 
There is one subject which we shall occasionally touch on, in 
the history of particular species, and also in taking a general 
view of the trees of each genus, or of each natural order; and 
that is, the improvement which many species are probably sus- 
ceptible of by cross-fecundation with other species nearly allied to 
them, or by procuring new varieties through the selection of re- 
markable individuals from seedlings raised in the common way. 
We shall also bear in mind the manner in which curious varieties 
are procured by the selection of shoots which present those 
anomalous appearances which gardeners call sports, and which, 
when propagated by grafting, continue to preserve their pecu- 
liarities. It should never be forgotten by cultivators, that all 
