JUNE. 271 



esque as that of the European species." Upon what differ- 

 ence he founds this distinction I am unable to determine ; 

 though I am willing to confess that I have never yet under- 

 stood the meaning of our American writers, when they speak 

 of a ^^picturesque tree," and do not believe that this epithet 

 has any determinate signification. It is a word that was 

 never yet defined or used by any two persons in the same 

 way. But it is one of those words which have become im- 

 mensely popular on account of their vagueness; like certain 

 nostrums, which are in universal use because they have no 

 medical properties at all, and allow every patient to imagine 

 their effects to be just what he fancies they ought to be. 



The remarks of Mr. Alison, with regard to the use of the 

 epithet beautiful, are equally true when we substitute the 

 word picturesque in the place of it. " Many of the classes 

 of trees have distinct characters ; there are, therefore, different 

 compositions which are beautiful in their forms, and in all of 

 them that composition only is beautiful which corresponds to 

 the nature of the expression they have, or of the emotion 

 which they excite. The character, for instance, of the 

 weeping willow is melancholy — of the birch and of the as- 

 pen, gaiety ; the character of the horsechestnut is solemnity — 

 of the oak, majesty — and of the yew, sadness. In each of 

 these cases, the general form or composition of the parts is 

 altogether different : all of them, however, are beautiful ; and 

 were this proportion in point of composition changed — were 

 the weeping willow to assume an equal degree of variety with 

 the oak, or the oak to show an equal degree of uniformity 

 with the weeping willow, we should undoubtedly feel it to 

 be a defect, and conclude that, in this change of form, the 

 beauty of the character and of the composition was lost. 



" It is in this manner, accordingly, that we judge of the 

 beauty of individuals in these different classes. All these 

 individuals are not beautiful, and whenever they appear to be 

 beautiful, it is when their form adheres perfectly to their 

 character — when no greater degree, either of uniformity or 

 variety, is assumed than suits that peculiar emotion which 

 their expression excites in our minds. An oak, which 



