DECEMBER. 557 



there has been many additions of new and rare plants 

 made. 



The plantations are arranged with considerable efTect in a 

 pictorial point of view, perhaps as much so as is possible 

 when each plant is kept perfectly isolated. In this respect I 

 was considerably disappointed, for I had imagined the plants 

 arranged in orders regardless of pictorial effect, but the fact is 

 quite the contrary. The plants of each order are scattered 

 about considerably, consequently the names of the orders are 

 not on the tallies, but they can be readily ascertained by ref- 

 erence to the catalogue. In public grounds generally, if this 

 arrangement or something similar was adopted, the trees and 

 shrubs would have a much greater interest. The most care- 

 less observer could not help learning the names more cor- 

 rectly, the character, halJits, size, nativity, (fcc, all of which 

 would aid in awakening an interest in the study of arbori- 

 culture. 



How many men would be persuaded to plant a few trees 

 if they only could see the result produced here in fifteen 

 years. How much more taste and judgment would be ex- 

 hibited in the planting if the public had such examples 

 before them, where they could see the effect of different 

 plants at all periods, from five to twenty and fifty years old, 

 study their coloring and outline, and thus be enabled to form 

 groups that would present a pleasing form and harmonious 

 coloring. 



I have made these long quotations from Mr. Loudon's cat- 

 alogue, and written these hasty notes, that Americans might 

 know what privileges Englishmen have, in hopes they would 

 be of some use in arousing some of our rich men to do as 

 Mr. Strutt did, build a monument more lofty and enduring 

 than if of marble or granite. 



Derby, Oct. 2, 1855. 



We are glad to hear so good an account of the condition 

 of this arboretum. We had the impression it had been neg- 

 lected, at the time we saw it in 1844, when we gave a 

 description of it in the Magazine. — Ed. 



