INTRODUCTION. 



have an opportunity of correctly ascertaining the names of such 

 as they ah-eady 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 



