408 ■■ Planting Trees and Shrubs 



ti 



family, and obviate the pernicious practice of planting them 

 near choice fruit trees, &c. 



In order to ascertain whether this birch rind could be 

 obtained through means of the Hudson's Bay Company, and, 

 if attainable, the price per yard or cwt., so as to warrant its 

 application to the purposes above stated; and whether its 

 durability would render it superior to the various coverings 

 now in use ; an application was made to the governor of the 

 above company, by Mr. Hawthorn, for a sample of this rind, 

 before the sailing of the company's ships for the Bay last 

 season ; and, as portions of this rind are generally kept at the 

 company's forts, a small quantity, for examination and trial, 

 was confidently expected, and the return of the ships to Bri- 

 tain was looked for with much anxiety. The ships returned 

 in November last, however, but without the much wished for 

 sample of the birch rind. Our hopes are therefore completely 

 frustrated for the present, but we still entertain the hope that, 

 at no very distant period, enough may be obtained to make 

 the experiment. 



I am, Sir, yours, &c. 



William Baillie. 

 Dropmore Gardens, Dec. 22. 1829. 



Art* VII. Remarks on planting Trees and Shrubs in Masses of one 

 Species. By William Spence, Esq. F.L.S; 



Sir, 



I now perform the half promise which I gave you, to lay 

 before your readers the impression made on me by the 

 various examples which I have seen, in the course of several 

 extensive tours in Germany in the last three years, of the 

 new plan of planting trees and shrubs in pleasure-grounds, in 

 masses of the same species : premising, that neither my health 

 nor acquaintance with the subject permits me to attempt to go 

 deeply into it, and that I do not mean to enter into any con- 

 troversy concerning it; my sole aim being to state my own 

 feelings, without at all setting them up as a standard of taste, 

 or even always pretending to give critical reasons for them. 



Formality and insipidity are so often the characteristics of 

 the old style of planting trees, designed for ornament, in a 

 regular and uniform intermixture of the several species em- 

 ployed, that I approached the first examples of a different 

 system with a strong prejudice in its favour. But I must 

 frankly confess that, after examining a great variety of speci- 



