BRITISH PLANTATIONS. 21 
is the first to record, in 1629, the introduction of that valu- 
able tree, the larch, and at the same time the horse-chestnut, 
but the introducers are not known. 
The number of species of foreign plants introduced into 
Britain during the eighteenth century was very great, amount- 
ing to nearly 500, but three-fourths of these were shrubs. 
More than half the number were natives of North America. 
The timber trees consisted chiefly of oaks, pines, poplars, 
maples, and thorns,—species or varieties of trees formerly in- 
troduced. Botanic gardens by this time were established in 
different countries throughout the world, and the interchange 
of plants became general. Nurseries for every plant in de- 
mand were established, and the taste for planting foreign 
trees rapidly spread among the landowners of England. This 
taste was greatly influenced by the Princess-Dowager of 
Wales, who established the arboretum at Kew, and from the 
celebrity of the plantations formed by the Duke of Argyll at 
Whitton. Large plantations were formed at Croome, Syon, 
Claremont, and at Goodwood. At the last-mentioned place 
the Duke of Richmond planted 1000 cedars of Lebanon, five 
years old, in 1761, which form part of the second generation 
of the tree grown in England, having been produced from one 
of the first trees known in the country. Among the other 
English plantations of valuable timber trees may be men- 
tioned that made at Pains’ Hill, Woburn, Strathfieldsaye, and 
Purser’s Cross. Syon had long had an established fame for 
trees before this period, having been greatly enriched by 
Henry Earl of Northumberland in the beginning of the 
seventeenth century ; and in 1750, an accession to the arbore- 
tum was made of every kind of tree to be found in the 
kingdom. 
Notwithstanding our numerous importations of foreign 
trees during the eighteenth century, it is remarkable that that 
of the larch to Scotland from England, where it had existed 
for a century, and yielded seeds for generations, should be the 
greatest acquisition, and distinguish the period beyond any 
other circumstance connected with British arboriculture. In 
