84 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL CHAP. 



to Professor Asa Gray, we "can grow double or treble 

 the number of trees that the United States can/' although 

 their native species are five times as numerous as ours ! 



There is therefore really no difficulty in producing in 

 England an almost exact copy of a North American 

 forest, with all its variety of foliage, with its succession of 

 ornamental flowers, and with its glorious autumnal tints ; 

 yet this has never been attempted either in this country 

 or in any part of Europe. That many of these trees will 

 reach noble dimensions there is no doubt whatever. A 

 honey-locust (Gleditschia triacanthos) in Professor Owen's 

 garden at Richmond Park was, in 1872, a magnificent tree 

 nearly eighty feet high, and was then sixty years old. 

 There is at Dorking a tulip-tree about the same size; 

 while the many beautiful American oaks, maples, birches, 

 and poplars, form noble forest trees in many of our parks 

 and pleasure-grounds. Were such trees planted in masses, 

 they would grow upwards more rapidly and produce a 

 forest-like effect in from twenty to forty years ; while from 

 their varied foliage and general novelty of aspect, they would 

 be both beautiful and interesting at a far earlier period. 



Here, then, we may do something which has never been 

 done before, which is sure to succeed (since it is only 

 growing trees in masses which have already been grown 

 singly), and which will ultimately produce a real addition 

 to our landscape, while the individual trees will be a con- 

 stant source of gratification and delight. As yet we have 

 only mentioned the different kinds of trees, but North 

 America is not less rich in beautiful shrubs to form an 

 underwood to the forest or open patches here and there in 

 its recesses. The rhododendrons, azalias, and kalmias, will 

 grow as underwood wherever there is peat or loam, while 

 the well-known snowberry, the aloe-like yuccas, several 

 fine spiraeas, American blackberries, and many others, 

 would grow anywhere. 



Now let us suppose one of the most suitable of the open 

 tracts recovered at Epping to be thus converted into an 

 American forest, in which as many trees and shrubs pecu- 

 liar to Eastern North America as we know to be hardy, 

 are planted in masses and variously intermingled. Such 



