PREFACE. 



THE main object which induced the author to undertake this Work was, the 

 hope of diffusing more generally, among gentlemen of landed property, a taste 

 for introducing a greater variety of trees and shrubs in their plantations and 

 pleasure-grounds. He had observed, for a number of years, that, though many 

 new and beautiful trees and shrubs were annually introduced from foreign 

 countries into our botanic gardens and nurseries, yet the spread of these 

 plants in the grounds of country residences was comparatively slow ; and that 

 not only the new sorts were neglected, but many of the fine old species and 

 varieties, which had been in British nurseries for upwards of a century, were 

 forgotten by planters, and had ceased to be propagated by commercial gardeners. 

 In short, it appeared to the author, that the general taste of the country for 

 trees and shrubs bore no just proportion to the taste which prevailed in it 

 for fruits, culinary productions, and flowers. It also appeared to him, that, 

 while the numerous horticultural societies now established in the British 

 Islands had powerfully promoted the general taste for horticultural and flori- 

 cultural productions, they had rather neglected arboriculture and landscape- 

 gardening. 



Viewing trees and shrubs as, next to buildings, the most important ornaments 

 which can be introduced into a country ; and considering them, in this respect, 

 greatly superior to herbaceous plants, from the little care that trees and shrubs 

 require when once properly planted, and their magnitude, and permanent in- 

 fluence when grown up, on the general scenery of the country ; the author felt 

 desirous of pointing out the great importance of their more general distribution 

 and culture. In order to impress this on the minds of proprietors and their 

 families, and especially on the rising generation among them, he thought it 

 best to adopt, as the main feature of his plan, the description and portraiture 

 of such species and varieties of trees and shrubs as are actually in cultivation 

 in the country, and as grow vigorously in it ; referring to gardens or grounds 

 within a limited distance of London, where these species or varieties may be 

 seen in a living state, and to nurseries where they are propagated for sale, and 

 stating the price for which they might be purchased in England, in France and 

 Germany, and in North America. He has thought it advisable to give, not only 

 botanical specimens, but portraits of the greater number of species of trees ; in 

 order, by a palpable representation of their forms and magnitudes, to make a 

 stronger impression on the mind of the reader. These pictorial illustrations are 

 of two kinds : first, portraits of trees often or twelve years' growth, taken from 

 specimens growing in 1834, 1835, or 1836, within ten miles of London, and all 

 drawn to the same scale of 1 in. to 4 ft. ; and, secondly, of full-grown trees, also 

 all drawn to one scale, viz. 1 in. to 12 ft., and for the most part growing within 

 the same distance of London. 



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