X PREFACE. 



vinced from personal observation and experience, that no 

 adequate or remunerating advantage, either by a more 

 rapid growth of the tree or an improvement in the quality 

 of the timber is obtained, sufficient to compensate for the 

 great additional expense incurred, without taking into 

 account the difficulty in adopting it in many districts well 

 adapted to the rearing of wood, or where plantations are 

 made upon that extensive scale, now so prevalent through- 

 out the kingdom. In regard to the statistics of the various 

 trees described, the Author has been obliged, from the 

 restricted extent of his volume, to confine his remarks 

 within narrow limits ; this he cannot but regret, as he 

 is aware the omission must prove a disappointment to 

 many of his readers ; it is, however, satisfactory to be 

 able to refer them to so able a work as the " Arboretum 

 et Fruticetum Britannicum, 1 ' in which the statistical in- 

 formation respecting its various contents are generally 

 full and satisfactory ; Lauder's edition of " Gilpin's Forest 

 Scenery" also contains much interesting information of 

 this kind, respecting the various trees noticed and enume- 

 rated in the pages of that delightful work. 



The Wood Cuts, illustrative of the trees, have in most 

 instances been executed from drawings of specimens that 

 appeared to convey a correct idea of the usual growth and 

 appearance of the species, as this was thought of more 

 importance and better suited to the intention of the work 



