iv PREFACE. 



flowering plants, or of plants requiring the protection of glass ; while 

 many trees and shrubs that have been long in the country, though 

 they are as little known as if they had never been introduced, and 

 which would contribute to the permanent ornament and improvement 

 of country seats, are suffered to remain uncalled for in our nurseries. 

 Thus, while considerable sums, all over the country, are given for a 

 new florist's flower, a new variety of camellia, or a hybrid calceolaria, 

 which require the most assiduous care and attention to prevent them 

 from degenerating, and which are, perhaps, lost the year after they 

 are received, those more noble objects, foreign hardy trees and shrubs, 

 which are less expensive to purchase, require far less care in culture 

 and management, and which, when once established, will increase every 

 year in size and in beauty, and will remain useful and ornamental 

 objects on an estate for generations, are comparatively neglected. Of 

 a taste for fine flowers and a taste for fine trees and shrubs, it surely 

 will not be denied that the latter is of a far more elevated kind than 

 the former. It is more elevated, because it is more useful, more 

 durable, and more influential on the general face of the country ; and 

 because it not only affords enjoyment to the possessor and the close 

 observer, but to every one for whom landscape scenery has any attrac- 

 tions. 



One reason why a taste for foreign trees and shrubs is not more 

 common among country gentlemen is, the neglect of nurserymen to 

 preserve and exhibit, in their nurseries, specimen trees of the more 

 uncommon kinds, of eight or ten years' growth. Were this a general 

 practice, the result could not be otherwise than advantageous. To 

 compensate, in some measure, for the neglect of nurserymen, and to 

 aid in promoting an object which we consider of national importance, 

 we have undertaken our Arboretum Britantiicam, which, we con- 

 fidently anticipate, will be more useful, both to nurserymen and 

 planters of trees, than any work on Arboriculture that has hitherto 

 been produced. The plan is altogether original, as will be seen by 

 the notices of it in p. 558. and p. 581. 



We have left ourselves no room to expatiate on the contents of the 

 present Volume of our Magazine ; and have, therefore, only to refer 

 our readers to the Table of Contents, in which, under the different 

 divisions of the subject, they will find, we are confident, a rich fund of 

 instruction and entertainment, In conclusion, we beg to thank, most 

 sincerely, our contributors and our readers, and to solicit a continu- 

 ation of their favours. 



Bmjsivater, Nov. 10. 1834. J. C. L. 



