ARBORETUM ET FRUTICETUM 

 BRITARNICUM. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Though, from our title, tlie Arhoretum et Fruticetum Britan- 

 nicum, the reader may expect to find chiefly a history and de- 

 scription of the trees and shrubs which endm-e the open air in 

 Britain, yet we mean to connect this history with that of the 

 trees and shrubs of all similar climates throughout the world, in 

 such a manner as to show what has been done in the way of 

 introducing them, and what may be anlicipated from future 

 exertions. The Arhoretum et 'Frut/ceium Britannicum may, there- 

 fore, be considered as a General History of the Trees and Shrubs 

 of Temperate Climates, but more especially of those of Britain. 



Trees are not only, in appearance, the most striking and grand 

 objects of the vegetable creation; but, in reality, they are those 

 which contribute the most to human comfort and improvement. 

 If cereal grasses and edible roots are essential for supplying food 

 to sustain human existence, trees are not less so for supplying 

 timber, without which, there could neither be the houses and 

 furniture of civilised life, nor the machines of commerce and 

 refinement. Man may live and be clothed in a savage, and even 

 in a pastoral, state by herbaceous productions alone; but he can- 

 not advance farther : he cannot till the ground, or build houses 

 or ships, he cannot become an agriculturist or a merchant, 

 without the use of trees. 



Trees and shrubs also supply an important part of the food 

 of mankind in many countries ; besides all the more delicate 

 luxuries of the table, and the noblest of human drinks in every 

 part of the globe. The fruit of the palms, and of other trees of 

 tropical climates, are as essential to the natives of those coun- 

 tries, as the corn and the edible roots of the herbaceous plants 

 of temperate chmates are to us. Wine, cider, arrack, and other 

 liquors, are the products of trees and shrubs ; as are also our more 

 useful and exquisite fruits, the apple, pear, plum, peach, orange, 

 mango, and many others. Not to insist in detail on the various 



*B 2 



