iv TEMPERATE FOREST REGIONS 85 



an experiment would excite interest at every stage of its 

 growth. The paths and open glades intersecting it would 

 be visited year after year to see how it was thriving, and 

 this would necessarily lead many of its visitors to acquire 

 an intelligent interest in the trees, and shrubs, and flowers 

 of other lands. And as time rolled on, and one kind of 

 tree after another arrived at its period of blossoming, and 

 displayed each succeeding year in greater perfection its 

 glowing autumnal tints, the " American forest " would 

 become celebrated far and wide, and would attract visitors 

 who would never think of going to see the more homely 

 beauties of a native woodland, and still less a young plan- 

 tation of common trees. 



Before proceeding to describe the other characteristic 

 " forest pictures " which might be produced in the waste 

 lands of Epping, it will be well to answer an objection 

 sure to be made, that the kind of planting here proposed, 

 consisting wholly of foreign, and largely of rare trees and 

 shrubs, would be very expensive. This, however, is a 

 complete error. Many of the trees in question are 

 certainly rather expensive when large specimens are 

 purchased of nurserymen ; but this is chiefly because 

 there is so little demand for them, and they occupy ground 

 and require attention for many years unprofitably. But 

 nearly all these American trees could be raised from seed 

 almost as cheaply as the very commonest kinds. The 

 seeds could be obtained from their native country at a 

 mere nominal cost; and by forming a nursery-ground, 

 small at first, and increased year by year, in which to raise 

 them, their removal at the most suitable age and season to 

 the places which they were permanently to occupy would 

 ensure rapid and vigorous growth. The great item of 

 expense in forming any extensive plantation is labour, and 

 this would be little if any more in growing one kind of 

 tree than another, supposing both to be raised from seed 

 and to be equally hardy. The question of expense cannot, 

 therefore, be of importance, as compared with the vast 

 difference in permanent results between the plan here 

 advocated and that of the ordinary English wood, the 

 mixed plantation, or the systematic arboretum. The 



