340 TREES. 



plants — even of well known and tolerably abundarit^ species, by^tell-r 

 ing us that amateurs and nurserymen who aiinually, import from 

 hidQ every nfew and rare exotic that the richest collections of Europe ' 

 possessed, could scarcely be prevailed' upon to make a seajch for 

 -native American plants, far more beautiful, which grow in the woods, > 

 not ten miles from their own doors, Some, of them were wholly 

 ignorant of such plants," except so far as a familiarity with their' 

 names in the books may, be called an acquaintance; Others knew 

 them, but considered them " wild plants," and therefore, too little 

 deserving of attention to be wprth the troujile of collecting, even for 

 curious foreigners. " Atid so," he continued, " iu a country of azaleas, 

 kalmias, rhododendrons, cypripediums, magnolias and nysas, — 

 the loveliest flowers, shrubs, and^ trees of temperate climates, — ^you 

 never put them in your gardens, but send over the water., every year 

 for thousands of dollars wqrit of English larches' and Dutch hya- 

 cinths. Voila 'k goitt Bepuhlicain !'" 



In trutt, we felt that w'e quitp d9served,ti.e sweeping sarcasm of ^ 

 our Belgian friend. We had always^ indeed, excused ourselves for 

 the well known neglect of the riches of our native Flora, by saying 

 that what we can see any day in the woods, is not the thing by 

 which to make a garden distinguished — and, that since aUinanli^iid 

 have a, p&ssion for novelty, where, as in a fine foreign tree or shrub, 

 both beauty and novelty are combined, so much the greater is the 

 pleasure experienced. But, indeed, one has only to go to England, 

 where " American plants" are the fashion, (not undeservedly, too,) 

 to learn that he knows very little about the beauty of American 

 plants. The difference between a grand oak or magnolia, or tulip- 

 tree, grown with all its graceful and majestic developrdent of head, 

 in a park where it has nothing to interfere with. its expansibn^but 

 sky and air, and the same tree shut up in a forest, a quarter of a 

 mile high, with o;aly a tall gigantic mast of a stern, and a tuft of 

 foliage at the top, is tHie difi&reaioe between tbe. best bred- and highly 

 cultivated man of the day, and the best buffalo hunter of the Rocky 

 Mountains, with his sinewy body tattooed and tanned till you scarcely. 

 know what is the natural color of the skin. A person accustomed 

 to the wild Indian only, might think he knew perfectly well what a 

 man is-^and so indeed he does, if you mean a red man. But thp 



