ORNAMENTAL PLANTING. } 33 



operation of a summer of more than average warmth, again replun^ed 

 into the same state of debility, whilst the oriental plane has remained 

 quite uninjured. The intermediate species (P. cuneata, P. acerifolia) seern 

 to be hardier than the American plane, but less so than the oriental plane. 

 Another American tree, of large stature, high beauty, and hardihood^ 

 is the tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera), which, as its name imports, 

 unites the charm of abundant pale yellow flowers, bearing some resem- 

 blance to tulips, with beautiful broad leaves, of very ornamental form and 

 colour. When placed near the American oaks, its foliage contrasts with 

 them finely, particularly when, in autumn, it opposes its yellow tint to 

 their shades of crimson. It is perfectly hardy, and becomes a large tree 

 in England when planted in dry and deep soil. 



Though our principal object is to treat of exotics, yet we cannot avoid 

 mentioning the lime-tree, one of our most stately forest trees. Naturalists 

 decide that three species are natives of England ; but that which has the 

 fairest pretensions to be so considered, according to the authority of Sir 

 James Smith, Tilia parvifolia, is far less common in parks, than its 

 congeners, though, in our opinion, it excels them in beauty. The North 

 American species are very soft- wooded trees, and, in this country, of small 

 stature : we have observed a very extensive gangrene, sometimes extending 

 several inches down the trunk, to follow frequently upon the amputation 

 of one of their branches, even of moderate size. They deserve little 

 attention, except perhaps Tilia heterophylla, introduced about twenty years 

 ago by Lyon, the industrious collector. Tilia alba, said by some to be a 

 native of Hungary, a round-headed, thickly branching tree, of rapid 

 growth, and somewhat formal outline, with broad leaves, green on their 

 upper, and white on their lower surface, an attribute well displayed when 

 they are agitated by wind, possesses the merit of being almost the latest 

 deciduous tree to drop its leaves at the approach of winter. 



We briefly advert to the Spanish chestnut, so superb in its stature, in one 

 memorable instance, in this country, reaching to a girth of above fifty feet*; 

 so beautiful in its foliage, so stately in its maturity, so venerable in its 

 age, so rapid in its progress on warm gravels or deep fertile sands, together 

 with its elegant variety the fern-leaved chestnut of the nurseries, and pass 

 on to that delightful exotic, whose tumid bud is the well-known harbinger 

 of spring, whose magnificence is perhaps undervalued, because it meets us 

 in every walk, the horse-chestnut, the /Esculus hippocastanum of botanists. 

 A species nearly related to it, if indeed it be not a mere variety, Jjlsculus 

 rubicunda, with fine red flowers produced apparently in great abundance, 

 should be universally planted. It has been lately introduced, along with 

 jEsculus rosea, of nearly equal beauty, from the continent, where greater 

 attention appears to have been paid to trees than in this country. ^Esculus 

 flava and neglecta, with flowers of but moderate beauty, are elegant in foliage 

 and habit ; the flowers of .ZEsculus Pavia are high coloured, though small ; 

 several other hardy species are rather shrubs than trees. But all of them 

 deserve distinguished places in the arboretum or garden, and should, if 

 possible, be raised from the nut. Generally they are propagated by budding 

 upon the common horse-chestnut an operation of great facility ; but, 

 in such case, the stock is apt to swell in a ratio much greater than the 

 graft, becoming, not only unsightly, but rendering the specimen short-lived. 

 The whole genus Betula is ornamental, yet perhaps the most beau- 

 tiful species it contains is our common birch (Betula alba), and its variety 

 or kindred species, the weeping birch. These trees are of much too 

 rare occurrence in park scenery; they are picturesque in outline, light 



* Vide page 11 7. 



