INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 3 



And here we would impress on all who may con- 

 template planting ornamental trees, to previously 

 decide on some arrangement, considered in connec- 

 tion with the situations they are to occupy, their 

 individual characters, and the object sought to be 

 attained. 



From the practice of indiscriminate planting, few 

 who possess gardens but have cause to regret some 

 untoward result arising from it. Choice specimens 

 spoiling each other from having been planted 

 without an acquaintance with, or recognising their 

 several characters, and which were only perceived 

 when too late to remove any, otherwise than by 

 the axe. And views obstructed, and rare specimens 

 hidden by others of an inferior description, and 

 which cannot now be conveniently removed, are 

 some of the vexatious results which spring from 

 the practice of planting, without well considering 

 the probable connection of future results with 

 present operations. 



The principal natural agents which influence the 

 labours of the planter, and the ornamental planter 

 especially, are climate and soil. The former, however, 

 is the more important ; for while there are but few 

 instances in which a naturally sterile or unfavourable 

 soil will not yield to the influence of science and 

 industry, climate will ever retain its great charac- 

 teristics unchanged by the agency of man, and the 

 planter, the gardener, and the husbandman, must be 

 content to adapt their several operations to its general 

 influence, or to the local peculiarities which observa- 



