254 REVIEWS, 



some one of the great forest regions of the temperate zone. 

 A climate of which it has, we believe truly, been said that it 

 can grow treble the number of species of trees which the At- 

 lantic United States can, and in which so many trees have 

 been individually tested, offers favorable auspices for an 

 undertaking of this kind upon a scale that may give a good 

 idea of the features — not of this or that tree or shrub, but 

 of a forest of the AUeghanies, of the Sierra Nevada, of Brit- 

 ish Columbia, and of Japan. Even the southern temperate 

 zone may contribute from New Zealand its Kauri Pines and 

 Beeches, under which Macaulay's overworked New Zealander 

 may encamp on returning from his excursion to view the ruins 

 of London bridge by moonlight. 



When Mr. Wallace declares that " there is really no diffi- 

 culty 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," we must agree that the experiment as a 

 whole is hopeful, and much of it is already a success in piece- 

 meal plantation. But we are not sure about autumnal tints 

 under London skies, considering how much these differ be- 

 tween one season and another in New England. And, though 

 every tree will grow in England, being put to no severe stress 

 either in winter or summer, yet not every tree nurtured under 

 our climate — so fierce in both seasons — will blossom in 

 England, as witness our handsome leguminous tree, Cladrastis, 

 or Yellow-wood. But a climate which will fairly nourish on 

 one soil the trees of the Atlantic and the Pacific forests, 

 those of Japan and Mantchuria, of Siberia, Himalaya, and 

 the Caucasus, along with those to the manner born, deserves 

 to possess them all. We, alas ! can seldom grow^ on one side 

 of our continent the trees and shrubs of the other. More- 

 over, there is very little forest east of the Rocky Mountains 

 which an act of Congress could preserve ; and, over that lit- 

 tle, Congress and the Secretary of the Interior have lately 

 been at loggerheads. Yet in California we have forests, still 

 public domain, which are the veritable wonders of the world, 

 which for the most part are doomed to irremediable destruc- 



