fe3d BRISTOL SOCIETY. 



beneath whose shade our first parents sat in conversation pure, 

 or leaned in graceful attitudes to rest. In ancient times, the 

 tree was the chosen emblem of life, knowledge, beauty, con- 

 stancy, fruitfulness, patience, wisdom, power and victory. 



The palm, the cedar, the fig, the almond, and the olive tree, 

 were all deemed worthy of dignity and honor ; while the " pine, 

 the fir tree, and the box together," were chosen to beautify and 

 adorn the place of the sanctuary. 



And what more worthy object of admiration can be found 

 among nature's loveliest productions than a perfect and well- 

 formed tree, — whether we behold it as a single cone, with its 

 exact and symmetrical form, and neat, trim outline, or as 

 spreading its wide and umbrageous head in graceful lines and 

 sweeping curves, or bending its boughs to the earth, laden with 

 bright and golden fruit, — whether standing by itself in solitary 

 beauty, in a fertile, grassy plain, or grouped in an affectionate 

 and harmonious cluster with artistic grace and skill ; or ranged 

 in more formal order, by the dusty road-side, refreshing the 

 weary traveller on his sultry way, at once with nourishment 

 and shade, — whether budding forth with the fresh and joyous 

 green of spring, or decked in the rich and gorgeous robes of 

 autumn, or clad with the icy vestments of winter, glittering in 

 the bright sun with the matchless splendor of a diamond mine, 

 — everywhere, in all places, and under every aspect, a perfect, 

 well-formed tree, is an object of beauty and admiration. 



" The sayling pine, the cedar proud and tall, 



The vine-propp elm, the poplar never dry, 



The builder oake, sole king of forests all. 



The aspine, good for staves, the cypress funerale," 



have all received the homage of a poet's pen, while the painter's 

 pencil has vied with the sculptor's chisel in embodying and 

 preserving their various forms of beauty and grace. The cul- 

 tivation of ornamental trees is the cause and the effect, the 

 antecedent and the consequent, the sign and the produce, of a 

 love for the beautiful and true in nature. It is justly entitled 

 to be classed with the fine arts, and ever tends to elevate, 

 humanize, and refine mankind. What traveller, as he passed 

 some humble, modest, neat-looking cottage, with its well- 

 trimmed grass-plot and overhanging elm, has not felt that there 

 must be the abode of refinement, contentment, and peace ? 



