i 9 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



that they have probably done more than anybody else to foster the 

 modern idea of Nature, and the love of wild and picturesque scenery. 

 Our business, however, is more particularly with Mr. Tennyson, and 

 with the evidences of botanical knowledge to be found in his works, 

 that part of botany, at least, relating to trees. These allusions, we ap- 

 prehend, are more numerous, and show more insight, and acquaintance 

 with the forms, and processes, and changes characteristic of the inhab- 

 itants of the forest, than those of any other modern author. His verse 

 in this respect differs from other descriptive poetry chiefly in this, that 

 his notices are not general appellations or similitudes applicable 

 equally to any or all trees, but are specific, exact, and true only in the 

 particular case. Thomson, for example, in the " Seasons," is, in gen- 

 eral, curiously vague in his descriptions. He generalizes constantly, 

 and presents his readers with broad effects sketched en masse, instead 

 of individual details. Such phrases as " sylvan glades," " vocal 

 groves," " umbrageous shades," and the like, frequently occur, doing 

 duty in place of more minute representations. Mr. Tennyson, on the 

 other hand (and Sir Walter and Wordsworth may also be included), 

 pursues exactly the contrary method. His descriptions are, nearly 

 always, pictures of particular places instead of fancy sketches, and the 

 distinguishing features are given incidentally in the course of the nar- 

 rative. Where, again, particular trees are referred to, it is almost 

 invariably with a phrase or an epithet clinching the description as 

 precisely as a paragraph from Evelyn or Loudon. And, as poetry, 

 these casual, accidental bits of descriptive writing are infinitely more 

 effective than any amount of versified disquisition, of the Darwin sort, 

 on the processes of vegetation. Slight, too, though in many cases 

 they are, they indicate a deep appreciation of the results and tenden- 

 cies of modern science. In what remains of this paper it is proposed, 

 a little in detail, to adduce evidence from Mr. Tennyson's poems in 

 support of the views we have expressed. It will not be necessary to 

 go over the whole field, and we shall therefore select a few of the more 

 important trees, and see to what extent his notices of them are cor- 

 roborative of these preliminary remarks. 



The ash will be the first example, and the reference in the lines 

 quoted bejow is to the proverbial lateness of this tree in developing 

 its foliage. It forms part of the Prince's song in " The Princess : " 



" Why lingereth she to clothe her heart with love, 

 Delaying as the tender ash delays 

 To clothe herself, when all the woods are green? " 



This is a very striking comparison, happily expressed, and, besides 

 serving its immediate purpose, corrects an erroneous notion, somewhat 

 popular, that sometimes the ash and sometimes the oak is in leaf first. 

 Then, again, in " The Gardener's Daughter," Juliet's eyes and hair are 

 thus described: 



