550 Effects of Wind on Trees. 



Trees. — Common elm, common wych, willow, Huntingdon willow, oak, 

 poplar, aspen, hazel, ash, wild cherry, hornbeam, birch, maple, service, 

 lime, yew, sycamore, Scotch pine, larch, spruce fir, Weymouth pine, cluster 

 pine, horsechestnut, Spanish or sweet chestnut, alder, elder, laburnum, 

 plane, holly. 



Shrubs. — Tamarisk, A'tri\Ae\ i/alimus, J' triplex /jortulacoides, B\x- 

 pleurum fruticosum, i?uscus aculeatus under tall trees, common dogwood 

 (Cornus sanguinea), common spindle wood (jEuonymus europae'us), 

 common broom, and the furze. 



This list is doubtless susceptible of correction and extension, and these 

 acts, I hope, will be performed on it by correspondents. Perhaps there is 

 no subject better worth their teaching others upon, than the best means of 

 converting a dreary and desert-like coast into a richly furnished landscape ; 

 that those whose property or duties may require them to reside in spots so 

 little favoured naturally (some coasts are charmingly planted independently 

 of man), may draw and establish round their dwelling-place the beauties of 

 vegetable nature. However common the species named above, or others 

 which correspondents yet may mention, may be, such are more valuable at 

 first than choicer kinds; because, from their hardihood and usual tenacious- 

 ness of growth, they are more likely to thrive in unindulgent soils and 

 situations. When these are well established, choicer kinds may be reared 

 beneath their shelter. But, common as I call them, they seem to in- 

 clude among themselves nearly all the kinds on which Cowper has thus 

 pleasingly remarked : — 



" Attractive is the woodland scene. 



Diversified with trees of every growth. 



Alike, yet various. Here the grey smooth trunks 



Of ash, or lime, or beech, distinctly shine 



Within the twilight of their distant shades. 



Ko tree in all the grove but has its charms. 



Though each its hue peculiar; paler some. 



And of a wannish grey : the willow such, 



And poplar, that with silver lines his leaf. 



And ash far stretching his umbrageous arm; 



Of deeper green the elm ; and deeper still, 



Lord of the woods, the long-surviving oak. 



Some glossy-leaved, and shining in the sun ; 



The maple, and the beech of oily nuts 



Prolific, and the lime at dewy eve 



Diffusing odours : nor unnoted pass 



The sycamore, capricious in attire, 



!Now green, now tawny, and, ere autumn yet 



Have changed the woods, in scarlet honours bright." 



Cowpei-'s Task, book i. 



Of the nqmes of trees and shrubs contained in my brief list above, the 

 greater part was told me by Mr. Joseph Malpas, jun., of Michaelstow Hall 

 gardens, Ramsey, near Harwich ; who remarked that the Spanish or sweet 

 chestnut is the pride of all the timber trees in that neighbourhood ; that 

 there are most magnificent specimens of it existing thereabouts; and that 

 its wood is a good deal used there, and deemed almost equally durable and 

 valuable with that of the oak itself. Should correspondents be pleased to 

 follow up this subject, they will doubtless notify, in each coast neighbour- 

 hood on which they may report, the kind or kinds of tree or shrub which 

 thrives the most perfectly ; and notice, in connection with such instance, 

 the soil, and more particularly winds, which most prevail there. — J, D. 



