76 ESSAYS. 



serving, lest the interests of the publisher should suffer from 

 nominal connection between this work and the New Harmony 

 reprint of the original Sylva, that the paper and typography 

 are good, and the plates, which are colored lithographs, are 

 respectable. Meanwhile the interest of the subject, and the 

 well-known scientific character of the author, will commend 

 the work to general attention and patronage. 



The plan and object of the late Mr. Loudon's greatest 

 work, " The Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum," is fully 

 set forth in the copious title-page. All its promises are more 

 than redeemed in the execution of the work, which is truly a 

 fine monument of industry and careful research. We have 

 particular reasons, which will appear in the sequel, for com- 

 mending this work to the notice of any readers interested in 

 these subjects, who do not alread}^ possess it. By purchasing 

 a copy of it, or of the valuable abridgment, the " Encyclo- 

 paedia of Trees and Shrubs," a work of moderate price, they 

 will render important aid to the embarrassed family of the 

 author. To give some idea of the astonishing industry of the 

 late Mr. Loudon in the preparation of scientific books, we ex- 

 tract the following account from the " Gardeners' Magazine," 

 an excellent periodical, the publication of which, after it had 

 continued for a period of eighteen years, terminated at the 

 death of its indefatigable editor. 



" Mr. Loudon was brought up as a landscape-gardener, and 

 began to practise in 1808, when he came to England with 

 numerous letters of introduction to some of the first landed 

 proprietors in the kingdom. He afterwards took a large farm 

 in Oxfordshire, where he resided in 1809. In the years 1813, 

 1814, 1815, he made the tour of northern Europe, traversing 

 Sweden, Russia, Poland, and Austria ; in 1819, he traveled 

 through Italy, and in 1828, through France and Germany. 

 Mr. Loudon's career as an author began in 1803, when he 

 was only twenty years old ; and it continued, with very little 

 interruption, during the space of forty years, being only con- 

 cluded by his death. The first works he published were the 

 following : ' Observations on laying out Public Squares,' 

 in 1803, and on ' Plantations,' in 1804 ; a i Treatise on Hot- 



