229 



exactly that its figure shall convey to the beholder a warrant of its 

 identity. A familiar bird or insect is recognized at sight ; but who 

 shall select an oak, an ash, or an aspen fiom among the most faithful- 

 ly drawn group of forestry ? The fault is perhaps in the subject, not 

 in the manner of execution. How many are there who, seeing the 

 trees themselves tossing their sinewy branches in the breeze, would be 

 unable to refer each to its particular species ; how difiicult therefore 

 must it be for the pencil to seize on characters which the experienced 

 eye shall often fail to detect ! The work, in fine, must rest its claim 

 to public patronage on the correctness of its details and the complete- 

 ness of its descriptions, rather than on any striking likeness in the 

 portraits of the trees themselves. 



The author's remarks on the comparative value of timber are highly 

 interesting and valuable. The Black Italian or Necklace Poplar {Po- 

 pulus monilifera) is the subject of high encomium. "The wood is 

 of a greyish white colour, tough when seasoned, and if kept dry very 

 durable ; its great size renders it fit for the largest buildings, and as 

 flooring for manufactories and other erections nothing can surpass it, 

 as in addition to the property of not splitting by percussion, it pos- 

 sesses the peculiar advantage of not easily taking fire, and even when 

 ignited burning without flame or violence." — p. 201. The last-named 

 quality is an excellence of more than ordinary importance : what an 

 amount of humem life and property might be saved by the use of tim- 

 ber which would thus arrest or even retard the awful power of flame ! 



Speaking of the beech Mr. Selby tells us that when this noble tree 

 is grown singly or in hedgerows it is, " from its dense and widely-ex- 

 tended shade, and the deleterious nature of its drip, more injurious to 

 the herbage beneath than any other tree : and here we may also re- 

 mark, that one of the greatest disadvantages attending Beechen woods 

 or groves, is that no underwood or herbage, with the exception of 

 some Orchideous and Cryptogamic plants, will thrive beneath their 

 shade : even the hardy holly, a plant that flourishes and bears, com- 

 paratively unhurt, the drip and shade of many other trees, pines and 

 languishes under the Beech ; laurels and other evergreens, as well as 

 deciduous shrubs, all speedily die when planted beneath its shade." 

 — p. 312. Does not our author here lay too much stress on the drip 

 of the beech ? We should hesitate before attributing this deleterious 

 effect to any other cause than the exclusion of light, for we have often 

 seen young beech contending for the mastery with a vigorous under- 

 growth of holly and wych elms ; and although the beeches have out- 

 stripped their fellows, which much consequently receive their drip. 



