BILI.INGTON ON PLANTING. 



185 



ber of oaks above a certain size, and a step of eleva- 

 tion to eveTy titled person, and the title of Baronet 

 to every private gentleman, who should possess a 

 given number, diminishing the number requisite to 

 give a step as the title became lower. We should 

 conceive this law would not render nobility of less 

 estimation. Perhaps the clause might be added, 

 that one tree raised on waste ground should count 

 two. 



As a treatise on the rearing, or rather prevention of 

 the rearing, of young planting, Mr Billington's small 

 volume possesses some real merit ; and simplicity and 

 usefid and sagacious remark are so blended together, 

 as to afford to the reader at once amusement and in- 

 fonnation. We are something at a loss to account 

 for this incongruity. Has the seclusion of a forest 

 life given a cast of the naturel to his mental pro- 

 duct ; or has Jaques of Arden really been in Dean 

 with his celebrated invocation ? 



Mr Billington's directions on pruning and train- 

 ing are generally good ; but he distances common 

 sense when on his hobby of shortening of side 

 branches, in recommending to extend this practice to 

 pines. His breeding as a gardener, and consequent 

 taste for espalier and wall-training, where every shoot 

 must be under especial direction, seem to have un- 



