266 Gbe (Barren 



brought to perfection some that I have named. 

 The introduction of foreign trees and plants, 

 which we owe principally to Archibald, Duke 

 of Argyle, contributed essentially to the rich- 

 ness of coloring so peculiar to our modern 

 landscape. The mixture of various greens, the 

 contrast of forms between our forest-trees and 

 the northern and West Indian firs and pines, are 

 improvements more recent than Kent, or but 

 little known to him. The weeping willow, and 

 every florid shrub, each tree of delicate or bold 

 leaf, are new tints in the composition of our 

 gardens. The last century was certainly ac- 

 quainted with many of those rare plants we now 

 admire. The Weymouth pine has long been 

 naturalized here ; the patriarch plant still exists 

 at Longleat. The light and graceful acacia was 

 known as early ; witness those ancient stems in 

 the court of Bedford House in Bloomsbury 

 Square ; and in the Bishop of London's garden 

 at Fulham are many exotics of very ancient 

 date. I doubt therefore whether the difficulty 

 of preserving them in a clime so foreign to 

 their nature did not convince our ancestors of 

 their inutility in general ; unless the shapeliness 

 of the lime and horse-chestnut, which accorded 

 so well with established regularity, and which 

 thence and from their novelty grew in fashion, 



