and of Rural Improvement generally , during 1838. 569 



scientific arrangement proposed for the miscellaneous collection 

 of hardy ligneous and herbaceous plants. However proper 

 such arrangements may be in books, they are but ill adapted 

 for the garden, which, unless of very great extent, requires 

 that we should divide the trees and shrubs from the herba- 

 ceous plants, and arrange each separately. It is true, that an 

 arrangement might be formed, exactl}^ as shown in the plan 

 in p. 242., and the whole might thrive for a few years ; but, 

 as soon as the trees attained the height of 20 ft. or 30 ft., many 

 of the beds of herbaceous plants would be so overpowered by 

 their shade and shelter, and the ground so exhausted by their 

 roots, that the herbaceous plants would no longer exhibit that 

 health and beauty, accompanied by neatness, and bushiness, 

 without which, a collection of herbaceous plants ceases to be 

 gardenesque; and, in public gardens, becomes, a nuisance 

 instead of a beauty. The hardy trees and shrubs, where 

 there is nothing adverse in the soil and character of the sur- 

 face, may be scientifically arranged, according to the natural 

 system, by themselves; and there can be no obstacle to such 

 an arrangement in the case of the herbaceous plants, when kept 

 in a compartment by themselves also. The arboretum, how- 

 ever, in all moderate-sized botanic gardens, forms the bound- 

 ary plantation, and is, of course, expected to afford shelter from 

 prevailing winds in some parts of that boundary ; and to ex- 

 clude exterior objects not desirable to be seen in others : it 

 must also be so contrived as to admit occasional views of ex- 

 terior objects that are agreeable, and sometimes to form a fore- 

 ground to them ; and at other times it should be kept so low 

 as to throw little or no shade on the ground. This beintj the 

 case, the principle of utility requires that the strict succession 

 of the orders, as given in books, should, when necessar}', be 

 departed from, in order to effect these purposes. Indeed, pro- 

 vided each order is kept by itself, it is often a matter of no 

 great consequence what orders adjoin it. 



Arboriculture. — There are a number of very interesting pa- 

 pers on this subject in the present volume, which may be di- 

 vided into two classes ; viz., those which relate to the culture 

 of trees, and their after- management and uses ; and those which 

 record the eflftcts of the past winter on the more tender species. 

 Among the first, the remarks on the annual rings of a larch, 

 by Mr. Gorrie (p. 132.), deserve notice, as showing the con- 

 nexion between the increase of a tree and the seasons. 



Mr. Blackadder's mode of measuring growing timber by an 

 instrument of his own invention (p. 257.), and the specimen of 

 his mode for valuing woodlands (p. 266.}, are papers of great 

 practical value ; as is the article on the method adopted in the 

 government plantations in the New Forest, of raising and pro- 



