220 LITERATURE OF SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURE. 



after a ten years' absence, was returned from Troy, and coming home 

 found his aged father in the field planting of trees, he asked him 

 ' why, being now so far advanced in years, he would put himself to 

 the fatigue and labour of planting that of which he was never likely 

 to enjoy the fruit?' The good old man, taking him for a stranger, 

 gently replied, ' I plant against my son, Ulysses, comes home.' 

 Tbe application is obvious, and instructive for both old and young."* 

 X< >r did Evelyn insist upon promiscuous planting, and by unskilled 

 labour. He warned young planters against " committing themselves 

 to the dictates of their ignorant hinds and servants," "who are," 

 says he, " generally speaking, more fit to learn than to instruct." 

 Would that his advice were still adopted and inculcated at the 

 present day, when ignorant labourers, destitute of any knowledge of 

 the forester's art, are too often entrusted with important operations, 

 when a skilful knowledge of the physiological principles of vegetable 

 life and tree economy are superlatively requisite and indispensable 

 to future success. 



Xo easy or insipid study did Evelyn discourse upon, but he 

 continually throughout this very important book dignified the busi- 

 ness of planting into an art or science, and recommended its pro- 

 secution in such a spirit. His work gives a detailed account of each 

 timber tree, its uses, habits, cultivation, adaptability to different soil, 

 situations and purposes, modes of propagation, and botanical de- 

 scription of each are appended. The illustrations in the later edi- 

 tions of the book are excellently rendered, and altogether Evelyn's 

 work may be ranked as the earliest pioneer of the study of arbori- 

 culture, whose deeds and teachings have left an indelible impress 

 upon the whole country. His work is the best early standard autho- 

 rity upon planting and treatment of trees; and although, as he him- 

 self in his preface admits, it is not written " for the use of mere 

 foresters and woodmen, but for the benefit and diversion of gentle- 

 men and persons of quality, who often refresh themselves in these 

 agreeable toils of planting and gardening," still, his style and 

 in utter are such that the work cannot fail, at the present time, to be 

 very intelligible and appreciable to the intellect of the improved 

 status of foresters of our day of advanced civilisation and knowledge. 

 Appended to the Sylva is " an historical account of the sacredness 

 and use of standing groves," showing in eloquent terms in what esti- 

 mation old trees were held for their divine as well as for their civil 

 uses. 



• Evelyn's Sylva, edit. Hunter, 1825, Vol. i. p. 32. 



