116 Plan for a Natural Arrangement, 



we began a pinetum, and got thirty species ; and tlius, by degrees, 

 with a little industry, I may have a complete arboretum. 



Speaking of arboretums generally, I do not at all think it 

 necessary for their success, or for the enjoyment to be derived 

 from them, that private gentlemen of limited fortunes should 

 plant full collections of either trees or shrubs, even should there 

 be plenty of ground to spare for them. Selections, and not col- 

 lections, should always be the study of the private gentleman ; 

 and, if a selection be judiciously made from all the tribes, or even 

 from the principal tribes, so as to maintain the leading features 

 of each tribe, and its connexions with those immediately follow- 

 ing and preceding it, all the purposes of a complete arboretum 

 are answered. In the meantime, the greatest desideratum is to 

 know how to make the best selection; and to this point you, 

 and those capable of cooperating with you, ought to pay parti- 

 cular attention. Owing to the manner in which most places 

 have been planted within the last thirty years, all that ninety- 

 nine gardeners out of a hundred can do is, to plant as many 

 trees or shrubs as they can procure, in suitable places, which 

 will be at least one step towards the formation of general arbo- 

 retums. 



Very few shrubs were planted here when the grounds were 

 first laid out ; but the soil about the house is suitable for most 

 kinds, being deep strong loam on gravel, sand, or rock, and 

 since 1830 a good many have been planted. The kitchen-gar- 

 den is four acres in extent, and the enclosed pleasure-grounds 

 about twelve acres. In the kitchen-garden are grown the finest 

 out-door grapes I have ever seen, an account of which, and some 

 pomological notes, I have been preparing for you for two or three 

 years back. 



[We need hardly say how glad we shall be to receive these 

 notices, or any other, from a correspondent of so much scientific 

 knowledge, and practical experience, as Mr. Beaton. See vol. xi. 

 p. 580 — 582.] — Hqffi.eld, Jiear Ledlna-y, August, 1835. 



Art. IV. Plan for the Exhibition of a Natural Arrangement of 

 Plants, in the Glasnevin Botanic Garden. By N. Niven, Esq. 



Agreeably to your wish, I send herewith my plan for the ex- 

 hibition of a natural arrangement of plants, an account of which 

 is published by Mr. Dixon Hardy of Dublin, in his Report of 

 the Transactions of the British Association held in Dublin ; but 

 not the plan. When you look at^^. 11. you will at once see my 

 object ; viz. the uniting together of a British and an exotic ar- 

 . ..igement, on a serpentine walk : the whole suited for a piece of 

 ground at present preparing for such purpose in this garden. On 



