TllK MATLES IN SHEEBOENE PAEK. 

 (BY EDWIN LEES, F.L.S., F.G.S., &o., VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE 



WORCESTERSHIRE NATURALISTS 5 CLUB.) 



The physiognomy of vegetation is made up in a great degree of 

 shrubs and trees, and without these a country, however decorated 

 with lloral tints, has a bare and unpicturesque aspect. Trees, as 

 Baron Uumboldt has well remarked, "impress us by their magni- 

 tude and stability," and a sylvan monarch, with its widely-spreading 

 branches, the growth of centuries, commands admiration from 

 whoever contemplates it. or seeks its friendly shade. 



A mere catalogue of the plants of a district gives but an incom- 

 plete idea of the prevalent vegetation that gives a feature to it, or 

 the nature of the woods that may cover a considerable extent of 

 country. In England most of the original forests have been so cur- 

 tailed by the axe that but few patrician trees of venerable age can 

 be now referred to as existing in forest purlieus ; but in the parks 

 of noblemen and gentlemen that have been long enclosed 

 " The stately homes of England, 



How beautiful they stand 

 Amidst their old ancestral trees, 

 The glory of the land !" 



There are few parks that have preserved more picturesque sylvan 

 veterans than that of Sherborne, adjacent to the fine castellated 

 residence of G. D. Wingfield Digby, Esq., and the Oaks, Maples, and 

 tortuous Hawthorns scattered about the undulating ground are 

 especially remarkable. While on a visit to my esteemed friend 

 Professor Buckman. I had several opportunities of roaming over 

 Sherborue Park, and luxuriating in its sylvan coverts. 



I was especially struck with the numerous Maples growing there 

 more abundant than in any other park that I have seen, and the size 

 of some of them and their curious knotted appearance, induced me 

 to make sketches, two of which have been engraved, and illustrate 

 this paper. One of them has an especially rugged aspect, and by 

 inartistic persons might be deemed ugly; and yet, as Gilpin has 



