15 
, PART I. 
GENERAL OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF THE 
TREES AND SHRUBS OF TEMPERATE CLIMATES. 
Tue use of the slight general outline which we propose now 
submitting to the reader is, partly, to show the consideration 
in which trees have been held in all ages and countries; but 
principally to record what has been done in the introduction of 
foreign trees into Britain; and to point out, from the ligneous 
productions of other countries having similar climates, what 
remains to be accomplished. We shall first notice to what 
extent a love for, and a knowledge of, trees existed among the 
nations of antiquity ; and, next, give a general idea of the indi- 
genous and introduced trees of those countries occupied by the 
modern nations of Europe. We shall commence with Britain ; 
and shall take, in succession, France, Germany, and the other 
European countries. Afterwards, we shall give a slight sketch 
of the trees suited to temperate climates which are natives of 
Asia, Africa, America, and Australia. 
CHAP. 1 
OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF TREES AND SHRUBS WHICH EXISTED AMONG 
THE NATIONS OF ANTIQUITY. 
Tue first notices which we have of trees are in the Sacred 
Writings. The tree of knowledge, and the circumstance of our 
first parents hiding themselves among the trees of the garden of 
Eden, are familiar to every one. Solomon appears to have col- 
lected all kinds of plants, and not only to have had an orchard 
of fruit trees, and trees bearing spices, but to have included in 
his grounds what are called barren trees, and among these the 
cedar. As this tree is a native of a cold and mountainous 
country at some distance from Judea, it shows that the practice 
of collecting trees from a distance, and from a different climate, 
to assemble them in one plantation or arboretum, is of the 
earliest date. The cedar, indeed, is frequently mentioned in 
Scripture; and both that and the fir (including, under this 
name, probably both Pinus and A’bies, for some species of both 
are natives of Asia Minor and Greece) are said, in the book of 
Ezekiel, to be frequent in magnificent gardens. Large trees 
were then used as places for meeting under (as they are, in the 
East, to this day); and they were then, as now, planted in 
cemeteries 
c 
