VARIETY IN ORNAMENTAL TREES. 



Though we may never cease to admire the great variety 

 of forms and foliage peculiar to the natural growth of trees, 

 the characteristic expression of many of which is so familiar 

 to all lovers of sylvan beauty, — as those of the Elm, the 

 Poplar, the Oak, the Maple, &c., — and may even doubt 

 whether the art of man, aided by science, can ever produce 

 anything so truly beautiful as nature herself, yet we should 

 not be insensible to the fact that great changes have already 

 taken place in the growth of many trees, nor deem it improb- 

 able that, through the processes of artificial culture and the 

 selection of seedlings under high cultivation, varieties ma^'r 

 be obtained that will form objects of pictorial beauty equal! 

 to those which nature has everywhere so bountifully supplied! 

 us, and perhaps surpass them in many characteristics- of 

 growth and foliage. 



Hitherto cultivators have given but little attention to pro- 

 ducing variety in our ligneous trees and shrubs ; but what: 

 little has been done shows how much may be accomplished 

 with these as well as among the humbler forms of vegetation. 

 The improvement of the flower and the perfection of the- 

 fruit have been the grand objects of cultivators. That im- 

 -mense success has attended their efforts, our gardens and 

 orchards everywhere attest. Who would detect in the moss 

 rose the wild brier of the woods, or in the delicious apple the 

 sour crab of the hedgerow ? These are improvements that 

 no one will deny ; nor have they been confined to flower or 

 fruit alone, for the form, the habit of growth, and, above all, 

 the beauty of the foliage of some trees, have been so changed 

 as scarcely to retain their original expression. There are many 

 pears whose broad, glossy, profuse and tufted foliage is so or- 

 namental that they are classed among ornamental trees; 

 while the wild stock is a thorny, gnarled, and. generally 

 worthless tree, difficult to harmonize with anything, but. the 



VOL. XXI. NO. VIII. 45 



