Qrigor's Eastern Arboretum^ 665 



terms. I have endeavoured, the fair authoress says, " to meet their views ; 

 and my plan of Floriculture may be carried into effect by any Lady who can 

 command the services of an old man, a woman, or a stout boy." We are 

 happy to find that so meritorious a work has already arrived at a third 

 edition. Every author and pubhsher knows that this is worth a page of 

 eulogium. 



Art. VI. The Eastern Arboretum, or Rural Register of all the 

 remarkable Trees, Seats, Gardens, S^c, hi the Counts/ of Norfolk. 

 By James Grigor. Illustrated by drawings of trees, etched on 

 copper, by H. Ninham. Nos, II., III., and IV. 8vo, 9 plates. 

 London ; July, August, and Septemberj 184:0. Is. each. 



(Continued from p. 601.) 



Our Trees. — No . 1. The British Oak. Quercus ^obur Z., the Quer- 

 cus pedunculata of Willd. and Arb. Brit. — Out of much that is interesting on 

 this tree, we quote the following passage : — " Various opinions are abroad 

 respecting the best mode of forming forests of oak ; some maintaining that 

 it is indispensably necessary, in order to preserve the native vigour of the 

 tree, that plantations, if possible, should be sown, whilst others recommend 

 the ordinary practice of planting. We are aware, from experience, that 

 frequent transplantation has a tendency to subdue and soften that rigidity of 

 fibre which all young trees possess : in the case of the crab-tree, it lessens 

 the sharpness and sourness of its fruit ; and it is well known that in Spain 

 and Portugal, where large plantations of the chestnut are made, the practice 

 of frequently shifting the trees is resorted to, for the purposes both of check- 

 ing their growth and freeing the nuts from that woody taste which they 

 otherwise have. It ameliorates and subdues the wildness of their native 

 character, and it must have a corresponding effect on the texture of their 

 timber. But, notwithstanding all this, our conviction is, that, if a tree is 

 transplanted finally before it loses the power of forming to itself a new tap- 

 root, as it is called, it is immaterial whether it rise in the forest from seed or 

 plant. An oak, for example, that is planted and replanted often in the 

 nursery, before being placed in its final destination, has a bushy, matted root, 

 and has no such power : it will never shoot up vigorously ; the top, in 

 sympathy with the root, will break into numerous branchlets and form a 

 round-headed tree. Great care must therefore be taken to give every en- 

 couragement, by pruning, to the principal shoot, in order that it may have 

 always a decided ascendency over the others." 



Our belief is, that trees so circumstanced, after being removed to where they 

 are finally to remain, and firmly established there, and cut down to the ground, 

 will throw out a taproot, and become in all respects as vigorous as if they 

 had been raised on the spot from the acorn. 



A Day at Thorpe, S^c., " the Richmond of Norfolk." — " Altogether, this 

 place reminds us of some of those delightful scenes met with about the great 

 metropolis of England, especially in the neighbourhood of Kensington and 

 Bayswater. Notting-Hill and Camden-Hill are very like Thorpe ; the villas 

 are of the same style, and the inhabitants of a similar grade — men generally 

 of refined taste, who carry their wealth out of the city with them, and beat it 

 out at leisure, not in embroidered gold, but in the shape of gardens, trees, 

 and flowers ; objects in which there is a lasting heartfelt satisfaction, which 

 rise around them in after years, speaking a language in which there is nothing 

 that reproaches, which tells them that there is, after all, something good in the 

 human heart, and that their labour has not been in vain." We must pass 

 over the remainder of this delightful chapter, which describes the seats of 

 Col. Harvey, Col. Money, Captain Blakiston, C. Jeeks, Esq., J. Postle, Esq., 



X X 3 



