CHAP. I. AS COMPONENT PARTS OF GENERAL SCENERY. 203 



which is exhibited when they are in flower or in fruit ; those whose greatest 

 beauty is when they are leafing in spring, or just about to lose their leaves in 

 autumn : and evergreens, or those which are clothed with foliage throughout 

 the year. The last two should be drawn in autumn ; and those which are 

 most beautiful when they are in flower or in fruit, at the seasons when the 

 flowers or the fruit are in their greatest perfection. For example, the horse- 

 chestnut ought to be drawn in June, the laburnum about the same season, and 

 the common apple-tree, the Siberian crab, the quince, and one or two others, 

 in autumn. Some species of the genus Crataegus are highly beautiful, both 

 when in flower, in May or June, and when in fruit, from September to Decem- 

 ber; and these may be drawn at either season. Evergreens may be drawn during 

 autumn and the whole of winter, till they begin to make their shoots in 

 May ; from that period they are unsightly for several weeks, while they are 

 losing their old leaves and acquiring new ones ; and they are uncharacteristic 

 of the species till the new leaves and shoots have acquired that rigidity which 

 is not produced till after complete maturity. This will be rendered par- 

 ticularly obvious by observing the common spruce fir, the Scotch pine, and the 

 evergreen oak, during the growing season ; say, about London, from the 

 middle of May till the middle of June. A young spruce fir tree, drawn in 

 May, would have a touch not unlike that of a horsechestnut ; and a pine and 

 an evergreen oak would appear to be trees of quite a different species from 

 what they are. In general, there is a great sameness in the appearance of all 

 trees during the leafing season, from the absence of that rigidity of foliage on 

 the points of the shoots which gives rise to the particular touch of each spe- 

 cies. Some deciduous trees are almost as readily known by their appearance 

 in winter, after all the leaves have dropped, as they are in summer. Portraits 

 of some of such trees have been taken during that season ; and how very cha- 

 racteristic these winter portraits are, in the case of some species, is rendered 

 obvious by the portraits of the Gleditschia inermis, U'lmus americana, and 

 others, which will be found in their proper place. 



Trees, like other objects, may be represented on paper by colours laid on 

 with a brush or hair pencil, by ink laid on in the same manner, by lines drawn 

 with a pen, or by lines drawn with a black-lead pencil. Whichever of these 

 modes is employed, the object is to give the spectator a correct idea of 

 the tree represented. The style of art in which this is done, whether by 

 the black-lead pencil, the quill and common ink, the hair pencil and Indian 

 ink, or by colours, is a matter of little consequence, provided the delineation 

 be such as to raise up just ideas of the object imitated in the mind of the 

 spectator. Different styles of art may, in this respect, be considered as equiva- 

 lent to different languages, the object common to all being to convey ideas. 

 As the most convenient and expeditious mode of drawing trees from nature 

 is by the use of the lead pencil, we shall now proceed to give directions 

 for its use. These directions are by no means so full as they might be ; but 

 to those who have leisure, and wish to see the subject of drawing trees by the 

 use of the lead pencil treated in the best manner that has hitherto been done, 

 we recommend Harding's Elementary Art, published in 1835, a work at 

 once artistical and philosophic. 



Previously to proceeding to the place where the tree to be drawn is situated, 

 provide a leaf of drawing paper, or a book of such leaves, of a sufficient size 

 to contain the pictures of the trees of the scale to which it is intended to draw 

 them. In the case of the Arboretum Britannicum, we have drawn the young 

 trees, or those which have been ten years planted within ten miles of London, 

 to the scale of a quarter of an inch to a foot; and those which have been fifty 

 years planted within the same distance of London, or are considered as full 

 grown, to the scale of a quarter of an inch to 3 ft. In order to draw trees to 

 these sizes, provide a dozen octavo leaves, and let them be sewed up together 

 at one end, in the form of a small oblong book. Form a parallelogram on the 

 first page, of such dimensions as to include the largest drawing which an octavo 

 page will admit of, and next mark the scale on the boundary of this parallelo- 



