THE LONGEVITY OF TREES. 70 



as well as the copyrights of his other works, were pledged to 

 the publishers for payment. It is gratifying to learn, that, 

 since the writer's decease, an appeal has been made to the 

 public in England, and with great success, to purchase copies 

 of this work and of the other publications of Mr. Loudon, so 

 that the copyright may be redeemed, and their future pro- 

 ceeds applied to the benefit of his surviving family. The 

 subjects of landscape-gardening and arboriculture are attract- 

 ing increased attention in the United States, and these valu- 

 able treatises are not yet so generally known as they deserve 

 to be ; we have thought it proper, therefore, to make this 

 statement. 



While systematically treating of the botanical character, 

 propagation, management, and economical uses of trees, Mr. 

 Loudon has interwoven a vast amount of curious matter re- 

 specting their history, geography, and literature. Being him- 

 self a distinguished landscape-gardener, he has successfully 

 treated of their character and adaptation as component parts 

 of general scenery, of which they form a most important ele- 

 ment ; for no other constituents — no lifeless objects — pro- 

 duce impressions at once so strong and so widely varied as 

 trees. He has also collected interesting statistics respecting 

 the longevity of trees ; a subject upon which we intend to 

 task the patience of our readers to some extent. 



The most interesting ideas connected with trees are those 

 suggested by their stability and duration. They far outlast 

 all other living things, and form the familiar and appropriate 

 symbols of long-protracted existence. " As the days of a tree 

 shall be the days of my people " is one of the most beautiful 

 and striking: figures under which a blessing can be conveyed. 

 We are naturally led to inquire, whether there is any abso- 

 lute limit to their existence. If not destroyed by accident, — 

 that is, by extrinsic causes, of whatever sort, — do trees 

 eventually perish, like ourselves, from old age ? It is com- 

 monly thought, no doubt, that trees are fully exposed to the 

 inevitable fate of all other living things. The opposite 

 opinion seems to involve a paradox, and to be contradicted 

 by every one's observation. But popular opinion is an unsafe 



