254 FloricuUural and Botanical Notices, 



" The tree," Dr. Lindley observes, from which the drawing in the Register 

 was taken, " is one of the handsomest in that very extensive collection of 

 hardy trees and shrubs. It forms a dense pyramidal head, leafs among the 

 first of the genus, and is soon covered with a mantle of snow-white blossoms. 

 After the latter have fallen away, the leaves become fully developed, and, from 

 their shining surface, neat figure, and firmness of texture, render the tree still 

 a beautiful object. Finally, the rich crimson of the numerous haws, which 

 adorn the branches in the last days of autumn, harmonises beautifully with the 

 fading verdore of the leaves." {Bot. Beg., April.) 



We have quoted the specific characters of this and the pre- 

 ceding species, and Dr. Lindley's remarks on them, at length, 

 in order to lend our aid in attracting attention to this very in- 

 teresting genus of hardy trees and shrubs. We are much gra- 

 tified to find that Dr. Lindley proposes to bring them into more 

 notice, and to show, as quoted above, " how very well deserving 

 they are of general cultivation." We have been endeavouring 

 to impress this on the readers of this Magazine for the last three 

 years, and, we hope, not without some effect. We have already 

 figured thirty-five sorts in the Arboj-etum Britajinicum, the entire 

 trees drawn from nature, from specimens in the Horticultural 

 Society's Garden, or in the arboretum of Messrs. Loddiges, to a 

 scale of 1 1 in. to 4 ft. ; and the botanical specimens, all from the 

 same sources, and all drawn by Mr. Sowerby on wood, to a scale 

 of 2 in. to 1 ft. We have more species and varieties to figure 

 before our monograph of this genus in the Arhoretum will be 

 complete; and, besides these, we mean to give, in the same 

 work, figures of one leaf of each species and variety, the exact 

 size of nature, traced from the real leaves, in the same manner 

 as we have done figures of the leaves of the species and varieties 

 of the genus ^^cer in the number of the Arhoretum for April. 

 W^e rely much more on figures of this genus, as, indeed, of 

 most others, than on descriptions, however elaborate ; for thorns 

 vary so much in the size and shape of their leaves, and in the 

 absence or presence of spines and bractese, that we do not see 

 how it is possible to frame a specific character in such a manner 

 as to embrace only those points which are common to all the 

 forms of the species, and, at the same time, enable any one to 

 make out the species in any one of its forms. In fact, this may 

 be said of specific characters and botanical descriptions gene- 

 rally ; and hence the necessity of dried specimens and drawings 

 or engravings. Even specific characters, drawn from dried 

 specimens, drawings, or engravings, cannot, in many cases, be 

 altogether depended on : and, in proof of this, we may refer to 

 any genus of which there are more than a dozen species which 

 are not all natives of the same country, or which have not been 

 seen together in the same garden, for several years, by some 

 botanist who has described them. Nothing, in our opinion, 

 will ever enable botanists to bring their characters and descrip- 



