and of Rural Impro'veincnt, during 1S^5. 615 



the care and trouble bestowed upon it, increases, every season, 

 the enjoyment which its planter derives fi-om it ; while the sickly 

 state of the old tree seems a constant reproach to the transplanter, 

 who has torn it, by main force, from its original situation. It is 

 always unsatisfactory to the mind, to see an object accomplished 

 at a lavish expenditure, which might have been done, and even 

 better done, at a small cost : it is, indeed, paying too dear for our 

 whistle. It has always appeared to us, that the practice of 

 removing large trees was a certain waste of money for a very 

 uncertain gain, in point of time : and we will venture to assert, 

 what we think every practical gardener will assent to, that, in 

 almost any given situation, if we were allowed to prepare the soil 

 properly, and to make choice of the kinds of trees to be planted, 

 we would, in seven years, produce a tree fit for every pui'pose in 

 landscape scenery for which a tree could be required ; and one 

 equal in bulk to any transplantable tree, with the advantage of 

 being firmly rooted into the soil, and in circumstances to increase 

 in size rapidly every year. This much may be said in favour of 

 planting large trees, that, from its being a difficult feat to per- 

 form, and, consequently, when successful, commanding applause, 

 it is sometimes undertaken by those who have neither love 

 for trees, nor taste for planting in the ordinary manner ; and 

 that it may, in this way, lead to a taste for planting in those 

 who had none before. The transplanting of large trees, there- 

 fore, except in extraordinary cases, and for the sake of showing 

 what art can do, we value only as the means of creating a taste 

 for planting small ones. 



A few new species, or varieties, of trees and shrubs have been 

 introduced or brought into notice during the past year, which 

 will be found enumerated under the head of Arboricultural 

 Notices in the succeeding volume, as those for the preceding 

 year (1834) are, under the same head, in the present volume. 



lEloriculture is, at present, unquestionably the most flourishing 

 department of gardening ; and nothing in this way can be more 

 remarkable than the immense number of roses, dahlias, and 

 heartseases raised and sold by commercial gardeners in Britain, 

 France, and Germany. Even the Chinese chrysanthemum has 

 been subjected to British improvement, and a number of new 

 and beautiful varieties have been lately raised from seeds saved 

 at Oxford, and other places in England, and in Guernsey. The 

 establishment of flower shows by the London Horticultural So- 

 ciety, at their garden, has been the means of producing some splen- 

 did specimens of what may be called botanical floriculture; as the 

 shows of the Metropolitan and South London Floricultural So- 

 cieties have of roses, pelargoniums, and florists' flowers. The 

 provincial horticultural and floricultural societies have spread the 

 same taste for flowers throughout the whole country. This taste, 



Y Y 4? 



