* SYLVA FL0R1FERA. 



head of a lawn, which gradually ascends from 

 the waves of his boasted river ; and what situ- 

 ation could be so eligible for the erection of 

 national galleries, libraries, and museums, as 

 this would offer: — but let us return to the 

 shrubbery ; for 



" The statesman, lawyer, merchant, man of trade, 

 Pants for the refuge of a peaceful shade." 



The laburnum was called Bean-trefoile tree 

 in the time of Gerard, because the seeds are 

 shaped like the bean, and the leaves like the 

 trefoil. It had also the name of Peascod 

 tree in that age, but which has long given 

 way to that of the Latin Laburnum, which 

 Haller says is evidently derived from the 

 Alpine name, Uaubours. In French it is 

 named Cytise des Alpes, Abours, and Faux 

 ebenier, because the wood was often used as 

 a substitute for ebony. 



The laburnum is a tree of the third height, 

 and flowers in the shrubbery from eight or 

 ten to twenty feet in height. As it is of the 

 middle stature, so should it generally form a 

 ventrical situation. Dark evergreens, of the 

 larger kind, form a good back ground to this 

 cheerful, flowering, and graceful tree, whose 

 yellow pendent blossoms shine more conspi- 

 cuously by the contrast. Its extending 

 branches should wave their golden treasures 



