7o 



FLORA AND SYLVA, 



the neighbouring bushes were reduced to mere sticks. 

 No. 8. At Woburn Abbey the timber has so gene- 

 rally been denuded of Ivy that I despaired of finding 

 any example, except in an Elm near the Duke's apart- 

 ment, which is very conspicuous (in winter) from 

 its profuse mantle of Ivy. But this was deemed in- 

 conclusive, although much superior in growth to 

 some other trees near the same spot, because it was 

 supposed that they might have contributed to its 

 growth by sheltering it from the south-west winds. 

 I afterwards discovered in the park a remarkable 

 specimen, which is the uttermost tree of a grove, 

 and the most exposed to the south-west. The tree 

 nearest to it has some dead branches, and seems 

 evidently to have yielded to its neighbour's superior 

 vigour. 



I should here further add the result of some 

 experiments made by Mr. Salmon, who has the 

 superintendence of the woods at Woburn. He tried 

 the comparative substance and strength of several 

 kinds of timber with the same kinds Ivy-bound as 

 he calls it ; but he could not find any difference, and 



is of opinion £ that in old trees it does no harm ; and 

 that in trees of ten or twelve years old it neither 

 checks the growth, nor is the wood lighter or 

 weaker ; but he is still convinced that he has seen 

 young trees killed by the Ivy.' It remains only to 

 mention 



" The advantages to be expected from a less 

 rigorous destruction of this plant : First, it may be 

 stripped from the trees in winter to feed sheep and 

 deer, to whom it is grateful and wholesome food ; 

 secondly, its berries are a resource to pheasants and 

 birds during severe weather. And lastly, if it were 

 less unmercifully destroyed our winter's landscape 

 would be greatly improved. I could not but observe 

 the contrast of places visited during the same winter. 

 Instead of that melancholy scenery in parks where 

 no Ivy is permitted to grow, and where each rugged 

 and venerable Oak, without its foliage, presents in 

 winter a picture of old age with poverty and naked- 

 ness, the rich mantle of Ivy thrown over the trees 

 of Langold and Stoneleigh gave grace and dignity 

 to age." 



STUARTIA VIRGINICA. 



Stuartias being somewhat rare and slow in growth at first, many who 

 would enjoy their singular and distinct beauty have an idea that they are diffi- 

 cult to cultivate. The following drawing was made from flowers given by a for- 

 gotten bush on the north side of a grove of high Oak trees in very poor stiff 

 soil, in East Sussex. Owing to various displacements of shrubs it had got in 

 this spot by chance ; certainly I should never have placed it by design in the 

 position in which it flowered. However, after some years undisturbed in this 

 almost sunless situation, it surprised us by flowering beautifully last year. The 

 flowers were not so large as we have seen them, but the beauty of the plant 

 was about the same ; so there need be little doubt that these are among the 

 shrubs for England. The culture is that of the commonest shrub. 



Trees for their Beauty. — I want you to under- 

 stand, in the first place, that I have a most intense, 

 passionate fondness for trees in general, and have 

 had several romantic attachments to certain trees in 

 particular. Now, if you expect me to hold forth in 

 a " scientific " way about my tree-loves — to talk, for 

 instance, of the Ulmus americana^ and describe the 

 ciliated edges of its samara, and all that — you are an 

 anserine individual, and I must refer you to a dull 

 friend who will discourse to you of such matters. 

 What should you think of a lover who should de- 

 scribe the idol of his heart in the language of science, 

 thus — Class, Mammalia ; Order, Primates ; Genus, 

 H omo ; Species, Europeus ; Variety, Brown ; In- 

 dividual, Ann Eliza ; Dental Formula. 



No, my friends, I shall speak of trees as we see 

 them, love them, adore them in the fields, where they 



are alive, holding their green sunshades over our 

 heads, talking to us with their hundred thousand 

 whispering tongues, looking down on us with that 

 sweet meekness which belongs to huge but limited 

 organisms — which one sees in the brown eyes of 

 oxen, but most in the patient posture, the out- 

 stretched arms, and the heavy drooping robes of 

 these vast beings endowed with life, but not with 

 soul — which outgrow us and outlive us, but stand 

 helpless — poor things ! — while Nature dresses and 

 undresses them, like so many full-sized but under- 

 witted children. . . . Who cares how many stamens 

 or pistils that little brown flower, which comes out 

 before the leaf, may have to classify it by ? What 

 we want is the meaning, the character, the expression 

 of a tree, as a kind, and as an individual. — O. W. 

 Holmes. 



