CHAPTER II. 



DESCRIPTIONS AND ORDER OF ARRANGEMENT. 



IN the following descriptions little attention will be paid to the 

 uses of trees in the arts, except only their pleasant usefulness 

 as food for eyes that hunger for all forms of natural beauty. 

 Enjoyment of trees, like enjoyment of sunlight, moonlight, 

 and flowers, is not to be measured by money values, nor to be 

 jostled by statistics of the worth of timber to the artisan, or of 

 shade for the farmer's stock. Yet whoever loves trees will find 

 language inadequate to describe their expressions, or even some of 

 their most common peculiarities, though they be ever so obvious to 

 the admiring eye. We would gladly be able to furnish engravings 

 of every tree and shrub described ; but to do this requires the com- 

 mand of artists whose work would involve the expenditure of a 

 small fortune. Few persons are aware of the skill and care required 

 to make a finished drawing on wood of even a single shrub or tree. 

 We do not mean by a shrub or tree such a generic shrub or tree as 

 any good sketcher may easily represent, but a speaking portrait of 

 some beautiful specimen, with its animated form, its sunny expres- 

 sion, and its shadowy dimples ; with its drapery of peculiar leaves, 

 and all its airy graces. Artists who can thus faithfully portray 

 them are not easily found,- or, if found, are usually engaged in 

 larger and more^ vrofitable fields of art. 



In reading descriptions of trees and shrubs, the reader must bear 

 in mind the great variety of wants and tastes to be provided for. 

 Persons who are enthusiasts for novelties desire to learn as much 

 as possible of the appearance and habits of the latest acquisitions ; 

 while a larger class of persons, who need no great number or 

 variety of shrubs or trees, are not less exigent to have pretty full 

 information of just those things which they do happen to grow or to 

 want. It is therefore necessary to give as full descriptions of new 

 things as of old ones of greater value ; and to mention, at least, 

 many trees and shrubs which are neither rare nor very valuable, but 



