660 RemarTcs on laying out 



hood of London. The greatest praise is due to Messrs. Loddiges, 

 for having set the example in their nursery ; and praise, also, is 

 due, on the same account, to the London Horticultural Society : 

 but both these arboretums have been necessarily made on too 

 limited a scale to answer all the uses required ; and both, to a 

 certain extent, have been injured or neglected. It is our intention 

 strongly to recommend the formation of an arboretum vv^ithin ten 

 miles of London, of from 100 to 150 acres in extent; and, far- 

 ther, we trust we shall be able to induce proprietors of estates 

 within ten miles of London to form collections of particular genera, 

 to such an extent as to include all the species which will grow 

 in the open air in that district. For example, we shall propose 

 to one proprietor to undertake the American and European oaks ; 

 to another the ashes ; to another the elms ; to another the genus 

 Cratae^gus, &c. To the proprietors of small estates, say of only 

 a suburban garden, we shall propose smaller-growing plants : for 

 example, to one who has good walls, the Clematideae, or some 

 other tribe or genus of climbing shrubs ; and to another, who has 

 not a wall, and can spare but little space, the ligneous Cruci- 

 ferse. &c. We shall propose to these different proprietors that 

 a list of their names and residences be published in the Gardener'' s 

 Magazine, with the genera or orders which they have undertaken ; 

 and that they shall permit, on one day in the week or month, 

 throughout the year, the admission of all botanists and gardeners 

 whatever to examine and study them. If this plan succeed, the 

 result will be a considerable increase in the number of the species 

 and varieties, and, ultimately, great accuracy in nomenclature ; 

 and the farther great advantage, that, after a time, some oaks and 

 other trees would ripen seeds which would be purchased by the 

 nurserymen, or given away by the proprietors; and thus noble 

 trees, now scarcely to be purchased in the nurseries, would spread 

 rapidly all over the country. From these monogeneric arbo- 

 retums, as they may be called, whatever was new would be com- 

 municated to the central arboretum of 100 or 150 acres; and 

 there it might be inspected by that portion of the public who 

 had not leisure to visit the 80 or 100 monogeneric gardens. 

 This plan of monogeneric gardens would put proprietors to 

 scarcely any expense : they would not require to keep a single 

 additional labourer or gardener ; and the portion of ground 

 given up to the genus would be as ornamental, considered as 

 shrubbery or pleasure-grounds, as any other part of their garden 

 or grounds. All the positively extra expense that they would 

 be put to would be in the first preparation of the soil, and in 

 the purchase of the plants. On an average, both these expenses 

 could not amount to 51. for each proprietor. 



A Herbacetum, or collection of hardy herbaceous plants, would 

 form a very interesting pubhc garden; and one which, as it might 



