386 Account of the Arboretum nowjbrming 



wives or daughters, only had a little taste for trees and shrubs ; 

 if they had only as much as might be imbibed by paying occa- 

 sional visits to the Horticultural Society's garden, they might 

 make these places little paradises. In another generation, when 

 all ranks and descriptions of persons shall be better educated 

 than they now are, and when botany and natural history will 

 form as much a part of general education as writing and arith- 

 metic do at present, then every country residence, whether large 

 or small, will be what is technically called an arboretum ; that 

 is, it will be planted, not with half a dozen sorts of trees, and 

 twenty or thirty sorts of shrubs, as is now generally the case, 

 but with all the sorts which the British nurseries can afford. 

 We have seen, in p. 163., that a collection of above 100 species 

 of trees and shrubs may be planted in a suburban garden of a 

 quarter of an acre ; and we shall hereafter give plans and lists 

 for residences of various degrees of extent, from that size up to 

 a thousand acres. This manner of planting country residences 

 will bring landscape-gardening, as an art, to a far higher degree 

 of refinement than it has hitherto attained, or than its professors 

 have contemplated ; and it will raise the beauty of the country 

 residences of England as much above the degree which they 

 have attained at present, as that degree is above the beauty of 

 the country residences of every other part of the world. Every 

 thing is making progress towards these desirable results : we 

 only wish that progress were a little accelerated, in order that, 

 in our day, we might enjoy some of its effects. The example 

 of the great and wealthy will contribute to this purpose, for 

 which reason we rejoice in the idea of an arboretum, on a large 

 and comprehensive scale, having been commenced at such a 

 place as Chatsworth, one of the most magnificent in England, 

 centrally situated, and, with a degree of liberality and impar- 

 tiality which never can be sufficiently commended, open every 

 day in the year, and shown to all persons, rich and poor, without 

 exception. The arboretum at Chatsworth will thus be seen by 

 thousands, who, pei'haps, going there principally with a view of 

 seeing the waterworks, will come away not only with a remem- 

 brance of them, but with the first germs of a taste for trees and 

 shrubs, which they would probably have never possessed under 

 other circumstances. A taste thus created, however slight it 

 may appear at first, will create a desire for seeing similar objects 

 to those which first called it forth, and it will increase with every 

 opportunity that occurs for its gratification. 



We have already stated that small places, especially those 

 that are about to be made or planted, may all be constituted 

 arboretums. Large places, which are to be formed or planted, 

 may also be made arboretums exactly on the same principle; 

 viz., by planting duplicates, or several plants of a species or 



