Scie7it[fic Public Gardens. 659 



heat during the hottest weather of summer. If the ground over 

 which the walk has been conducted has been trenched to the 

 same depth as the rest of the space, it would be advisable 

 not to finish the edgings and gravelling of the walk for a year 

 at least after it has been laid out, in order that it may settle 

 equally. Every tree and shrub ought to have its name, scientific 

 and English, its native country, and year of introduction, height 

 in its native country, and its time of flowering, with the date of 

 its being planted in the arboretum, painted or otherwise de- 

 lineated on, or affixed to, some description of label. 



The architectural ornaments for an arboretum should be few, 

 because the eye and the mind ought not to be diverted from the 

 study of the trees. There may be seats open and covered ; and 

 busts of botanists near the trees which have been named after 

 them. In a geographical arrangement, the arms of the different 

 countries may be sculptured on blocks of the kind of rock 

 which is characteristic of each country ; and the seats, whether 

 covered or open, might be in the style of the particular country 

 represented. For example, a seat among the trees of Lapland 

 should be in the form of a circular hut; and among the pine and 

 fir tribe of Switzerland, in that of a Swiss cottage, &c. Herbaceous 

 flowering plants ought, in our opinion, to be altogether avoided ; 

 unless it be intended that a complete natural arrangement of 

 hardy plants is to be produced, as in a plantarium. 



Of all the different descriptions of scientific public gardens 

 that can be formed, an arboretum is that which will require least 

 expense in its after management ; while, at the same time, every 

 year will occasion a change in its appearance. The trees and 

 shrubs being once planted (even though of the smallest size pur- 

 chasable in the nurseries), the source of interest, during the first 

 year, will be to see the different degrees of growth produced by 

 the different species ; the second year, some will have attained a 

 decidedly larger size than the others, and some shrubs will have 

 flowered ; the third year, the difference in regard to bulk will be 

 still greater, and numbers of the shrubs, with some of the trees, 

 will be coming into flower ; the seventh year, the greater number 

 of the low trees will have flowered and fruited, and now the 

 arboretum may be considered in its greatest beauty. This beauty 

 will not be of short duration, like that of herbaceous plants, 

 but will be continued and varied as the trees attain to their full 

 maturity of growth; and this, in a properly prepared soil, will, 

 practically speaking, be in about twenty or thirty years from the 

 time of planting. In that period, in most parts of Britain and 

 Ireland, the taller-growing poplars and elms would have attained 

 the height of from 100 ft. to 120 ft. 



We cannot help deeply regretting that no arboretum, such as 

 we have described above, has yet been formed in the neighbour- 



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