126 



HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TREES. 



PART I. 



There were 

 (torn the year 

 1548 

 1551 

 1561 

 1571 

 1581 

 1591 

 1601 

 1611 

 1621 

 1631 

 1641 

 1651 

 1661 

 1671 

 1681 



Introduced 

 to the year 

 1550 

 1560 

 1570 

 1580 

 1590 

 1600 

 1610 

 1620 

 1630 

 1640 

 1650 

 1660 

 1670 

 1680 

 1690 



Species. 



24 



12 



12 



44 



69 



21 



77 



58 



58 



49 



45 



93 

 364 

 242 



The numbers, taken by centuries, are, in the 16th century, 89 ; 

 in the 17th, 131; in the 18th, 445; and, in the first [three de- 

 cades of the 19th, 699! The total number of foreign trees 

 and shrubs introduced up to the year 1830, appears to be about 

 1300; or, probably, up to thy present moment, including all 

 those species which have not yet flowered, and, consequently, 

 have not yet been recorded in books, about HOO. 



The countries from which these 1 300 species have been intro- 

 duced appear, from the Hortus Britannicus, to be as under: 



Europe; Greece, Turkey in Europe, and the Levant, 36; 

 Italy, 35; Sicily and other Mediterranean islands, 19; Spain, 

 69; Portugal, 12; Switzerland, 49; France, 34; Germany, 52; 

 Hungary, 46; Russia, 41 ; Sweden, 4 ; Lapland, 4 ; Spitsber- 

 gen, 1; North of Europe, 2; Central Europe, 18; South of 

 Europe, 111: in all, 543. Asia; Siberia, 69; Asia Minor, 3; 

 East Indies, 4; Nepal, 54-; China, 34; Japan, 11; Persia, 5; 

 Asia, 3: in all, 183. Africa and- the Canary Isles: Barbary 

 States, 1 3 ; Egypt, 3 ; Cape of Good Hope, 4- ; Canary Isles, 3 : 

 in all, 23, America; North America, 528 ; Mexico, 4 ; South 

 America, 22 ; Straits of Magellan, 6 : in all, 560. Australia 

 and Polynesia ; New Holland, 1 ; Van Diemen's Land, 2 ; New 

 Zealand, 1 : in all, 4, 



It would thus appear, that nearly half the foreign trees and 

 shrubs in the country have been introduced during the pre- 

 sent century ; and that these have been brought chiefly from 

 North America. Among them there are not more than 300 

 trees which attain a timber-like size, and of these by far the most 

 valuable is the larch. Some of the European acers, the sweet 

 chestnut, some oaks, some poplars, pines, and firs, and the pla- 

 tanus and cedar from Asia, are also valuable as timber trees ; 

 but the chief accessions to this class are the acers, oaks, elms, 

 ashes, poplars, birches, pines, and firs of North America. Our 

 principal fruit trees are from Asia, including the common walnut, 

 which is both a fruit and a timber tree ; but by far the finest 



