82 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



not likely to attain such dimensions or live to such an age as the 

 venerable relics still to be seen at Fulham. It is useless lament- 

 ing over spilt milk, but the loss of the arboretum and shrubbery- 

 walk at Chiswick, once so rich in the very class of plants we are 

 now considering, will revert to mind, and, as the French say> 

 donna d penser. 



There are happily many towns still left where any tree or 

 shrub that is capable of living in the immediately surrounding 

 neighbourhood is capable of living in the town also. From this 

 point of view the " Sylva," if such term may be permitted, of 

 Canterbury or Oxford is not necessarily different from that of the 

 country adjoining. But it is widely different in the case of cities 

 like Glasgow, Newcastle, Sheffield, or Manchester, and more 

 especially in the case of towns where the air is not only mechanically 

 defiled by the presence of smoke and dirt, but rendered actively 

 poisonous by the existence of sulphurous and other acid vapours 

 from chemical works. Of the latter class of towns, and of the trees 

 and shrubs that will exist in their vicinity, the lecturer had little 

 personal experience ; but that circumstance does not depreciate 

 the value of the recommendation that intending planters in such 

 towns should, before commencing operations, make a careful 

 inspection of such trees and shrubs as exist there already. The 

 consideration of this part of the subject led the lecturer to 

 advocate the formation of town experimental gardens, and of the 

 propriety of setting apart portions of the existing parks and 

 gardens for the express purpose of ascertaining by experiment 

 what trees, &c, are likely to do best (or least badly) in the 

 locality. For this purpose it would, of course, be necessary not 

 only to get together the ordinary Elms, Planes, Limes, &c, that 

 form the staple of our existing town- Sylva, but also to procure 

 other less known examples. 



Experiments and observations of this kind demand time. 

 The town planter seeks immediate effect. He is not on that 

 account left stranded, or compelled to wait an indefinite period. 

 He can, as has been seen, make visits of inspection to arboreta 

 and to town gardens, but over and above this the structure and 

 ways of life of the trees themselves may afford him many a 

 valuable suggestion. Deciduous trees, for instance, which come 

 into leaf in late spring are less liable to injury from late frosts 

 than are those which expand their foliage early. Moreover, they 



