THE PINETUM. 



587 



cultural science, has shown the first and 

 only example to Scotland how an arbore- 

 tum under such circumstances can be 

 effectually arranged. Such are the general 

 views we entertain of what arboretums, 

 in the fullest sense of the word, should be. 



Such, however, as have not the neces- 

 sary space at command, or who entertain 

 a partiality for certain natural orders 

 more than for others, we would advise to 

 confine their collections to some of those 

 particular sections, and to render each of 

 them as complete as possible in itself — 

 bearing in mind to choose a section as 

 nearly adapted to the situation and soil 

 as possible. Thus we would have collec- 

 tions of Coniferse or Pinacese, containing 

 the pines, the spruce firs, the silver firs, 

 the larch, the cedars, the arbor-vitses, 

 the cypresses, the junipers, and their 

 allies ; of Corylacege or Cupulifera?, con- 

 taining the oaks, the beeches, the chest- 

 nuts, the hazels, and their allies; of 

 Salicaceee, containing the willows and the 

 poplars ; and so on with other natural 

 groups of trees and shrubs. Each of these 

 might be rendered complete in itself; and 

 if planted in soils and situations adapted 

 to their habits, would in time give us a 

 much better idea of their true characters 

 and value than if planted merely as single 

 specimens, and disposed in systematic 

 order without regard to soil, situation, 

 or association with surrounding objects. 



The arboretum, regarded in a utilita- 

 rian point of view, is deserving of very 

 serious attention. The taste for its for- 

 mation has led to the introduction of 

 many trees previously unknown even to 

 botanists ; and of these some will, ere 

 many years pass away, supersede in 

 value and national importance many of 

 those upon which we have long placed 

 our whole reliance. It is not, however, 

 in the garden and shrubbery that the 

 relative merits of such trees can be fairly 

 tested ; nor is it by the mere cultivation 

 of one or two individual specimens of 

 each, as we have already remarked, that 

 their true characters can be thoroughly 

 determined. Too close an adherence to 

 this rule has retarded rather than ad- 

 vanced our knowledge of their respective 

 value ; and it is not until we plant them 

 in numbers, in different soils and situa- 

 tions, more especially as regards exposure 

 and altitude, that we can arrive at any 



certain knowledge of their absolute value 

 or utility. It is therefore not in parks 

 of ordinary dimensions, far less in the 

 dressed grounds around the mansion, 

 that these objects are to be attained. A 

 far wider field is necessary ; and, combined 

 with this, a greater diversity of circum- 

 stances should be taken advantage of. 

 The whole estate offers only the necessary 

 conditions for carrying out this design 

 to its most useful extent. While, how- 

 ever, we throw out these hints to such as 

 have the opportunity of carrying them 

 into execution, we do not wish by any 

 means to deter those possessed of a more 

 limited field from indulging their taste in 

 the cultivation of some of the most curi- 

 ous and interesting of exotic trees. These 

 may be planted through grounds of very 

 limited extent, and with good effect, if 

 planted so as to associate with the trees 

 and plants around them, or to form con- 

 spicuous objects of themselves ; but under 

 such circumstances, anything like collec- 

 tion, far less systematic arrangement, 

 should be disregarded. 



§ 6. — THE PINETUM, 



The pinetum may be considered as a 

 subdivision of the arboretum, which lat- 

 ter is understood to be a collection of all 

 or most of the tree-growing plants suffi- 

 ciently hardy to withstand the climate of 

 this country. The pinetum, on the other 

 hand, includes only such of those as are 

 arranged in the natural order of coniferse. 

 Examples of this subdivision are not now 

 uncommon, that at Dropmore being not 

 only the earliest in England, but, we be- 

 lieve, also one of the richest in species ; 

 and those of George Patton, Esq., of the 

 Carnies in Perthshire, and Humphrey 

 Graham, Esq., of Belstane, in West Lo- 

 thian, being the most noted in Scotland. 

 Pinetums, like arboretums, have hitherto 

 chiefly been planted so that the genera 

 and species should follow each other 

 according to the systematic arrangement 

 of botanical science, and almost alto- 

 gether without regard to the countries 

 from which| they come. Indeed this 

 has been too much the rule in regard 

 to the arrangement of all collections of 

 plants. However convenient this mode 

 of classification may be in the compila- 



