CHAP. II. 



BRITISH ISLANDS. 



31 



3 evergreen trees, from 15 ft. to 30 ft., tlie box, the yew, and 

 the holly. 



65 deciduous shrubs, and very low trees, from 5 ft. to 18 ft.; 

 including 21 roses and 32 willows. 



26 deciduous shrubs, from 1 ft. to 5 ft. ; including 6 roses 

 and 10 willows. 



5 evergreen shrubs, from 5 ft. to 15 ft. 



7 evergreen shrubs, from 1 ft. to 5 ft. 



1 evergreen climber, the ivy. * 



1 deciduous climber, the clematis. 



2 deciduous twiners, honeysuckles. 



8 evergreen trailers, brambles. 



3 deciduous trailers ; the Rosa arvensis, the iS'olanum Dul- 

 camara, and the jRubus cse'^sius. 



13 evergreen shrubs, or fruticulose plants, from 6 in. to, 

 1 ft. in height ; such as the Faccmium Fitis idse\ the ericas, 

 Andromeda poliifolia, &c. 



10 deciduous shrubs, or fruticulose plants, from 3 in. to 

 1 ft. in height ; such as Comarum palustre, Faccinium Myrtillus, 

 (Salix reticulata, prostrata, &c. 



Sect. II. Of the Foreign Trees and Shrubs introduced into the 



British Isles. 



If wild plants are said to follow those animals to which they 

 supply food, cultivated plants are the followers of man in a state 

 of civilisation. In all cases of taking possession of a new country, 

 the first step of the settlers has been to introduce those vege- 

 tables which, in their own country, they knew to be the most 

 productive of human food; because the natural resource of 

 man for subsistence is the ground. In all temperate climates, 

 the plants of necessity may be considered to be the cereal grasses 

 and the edible roots. Trees, with the exception of such as bear 

 edible fruit, are not introduced till a considerable period after- 

 wards ; because all new and uncivilised countries abound in 

 forests of timber. It can only be when this timber becomes 

 scarce, or when wealth and taste have increased to such an ex- 

 tent as to create a desire for new trees as objects of curiosity, 

 that the practice takes place of cultivating indigenous trees, or 

 of introducing new ones. Hence we find that, in England, all 

 the timber required for the purposes of construction and fuel 

 was obtained from the native forests and copses, till about the 

 time of Henry VIII. In this reign and the next, Holinshed 

 informs us that plantations of trees began to be made for pur- 

 poses of utility ; and we find, in the same reign, that attention 

 iDegan to be paid to the trees and shrubs of foreign countries, 

 and that some few, even at that early period in the history of 



