CHAP, II. CONSIDERED BOTANICALLY. 211 
tree, because along with the young tree of the same species will always be 
found the botanical specimens. These full-grown trees have, in every instance, 
been drawn in the autumn, when the leaves were ready to drop off, at which 
season alone they have their most forcible character. Some further obser- 
vations on the subject of drawing trees will be found in the Gardener’s Maga- 
zine, vol. xi. p.395. to p.412.; and whoever wishes to become master of the 
subject will consult the excellent work of Harding already referred to. 
CHAP. II. 
TREES AND SHRUBS CONSIDERED BOTANICALLY. 
Tue purpose for which we propose to glance at the study of trees and 
shrubs, botanically, or as organised beings, is, to explain our reasons for the 
arrangement which we have adopted in placing them together; for distin- 
guishing between species and varieties; and for the scientific descriptions 
which we have adopted. It must be evident to the reader, that, before any 
use can be made of the history of any tree or shrub, means must be devised 
for distinguishing what particular tree or shrub is meant. From the want of 
these means, or the ignorance in this branch of knowledge of travellers, 
many of their remarks on trees, and other organised objects, are of little 
use: because it is impossible for botanists to ascertain, from their descrip- 
tions or names, to what species of tree or shrub these names or descriptions 
apply. There can be no doubt that the difficulties in this respect are much 
greater when applied to the whole vegetable kingdom, than when they are 
limited to trees and shrubs; and more especially when they are limited to 
the trees and shrubs supposed to be actually growing in Britain. But even 
among these, which, probably, do not greatly exceed 1500, there is, at pre- 
sent, the greatest uncertainty in the application of names. In genera con- 
sisting of many species, there are scarcely two of the London nurseries 
where the same names are applied to the same things ; and what in one nur- 
sery is considered as a variety is, in many cases, elevated in other nurseries 
to the rank of a species. Hence it becomes necessary, in a work like the 
present, not only to give our reasons for the classification which we have 
followed, but also for the specific distinctions which we have drawn, and for 
the kind of descriptions and figures which we have adopted. These reasons 
will form the subject of three separate sections. 
Sect. I. Ofthe Classification of Trees and Shrubs. 
Most authors who have hitherto produced works treating exclusively of 
trees and shrubs, from Evelyn and Du Hamel to the present time, have 
arranged them in the order of the alphabet. As we have, on various occa- 
sions (see Encyc. of Gard., edit. 1835, pref.), given our objections to this 
mode of arrangement in any work having pretensions to be scientific, and also 
shown that all the advantages of an alphabetical arrangement, in the body of 
a work of any greater extent than a pocket dictionary, may be obtained by 
an alphabetical index, we shall not farther insist on the subject here; neither 
is it necessary for us to offer any arguments in favour of the arrangement 
which we have adopted, which is that of the natural system, now so gene- 
rally preferred, by botanists and scientific cultivators, before all others. It 
may suffice to say, in favour of this system, that by grouping together objects 
which resemble one another in the greatest number of particulars, and which 
are also most alike in their qualities, every thing which is known respecting 
the properties, uses, or culture of any one of them, may be inferred, in a 
great measure, of every individual in the whole group. Hence, in the case 
R 3 
