192 



HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TREES. 



PART I. 



at Charlestown ; or if the whole could be assembled m one grand park and 

 pleasure-ground at Washington. We do not, however, expect this to be 

 done J for, in the progress of civilisation and refinement in every country, 

 there are many much more important points to be attended to than the cul- 

 ture of trees and shrubs. 



With a view both to introduction into any particular country, and equalis- 

 ation in all similar countries, the first thing that ought to be done, after the 

 indigenous plants of the country are clearly determined, is to assemble, in 

 one garden in the given country, all those of all other similar countries, 

 with a view to determining what they are. Thus, in the case of trees and 

 shrubs, all those mentioned in the preceding lists as being foreign, with refer- 

 ence to the trees and shrubs of Britain, ought to be assembled and proved in 

 one grand British national garden ; and the same thing ought to be done in a 

 similar garden in every other country. The idea may be thought chimerical; 

 but it is hard to say what will not be done by nations, when they come to 

 cultivate with ardour the arts of peace and of refinement. The cooperation 

 of individuals attached to the same pursuit may, in the mean time, contribute 

 much to the advancement of that pursuit; and hence, though in the neigh- 

 bourhood of London it might be difficult or impossible, to induce the metro- 

 polis or the government to form an arboretum of 150 acres in extent, so as 

 to exhibit in it all the species of trees and shrubs of temperate climates, that 

 will grow with us in the open air; yet, if the proprietors of a certain number 

 of estates within ten miles of London were to agree each to form a collec- 

 tion of the species or varieties of a particular genus, and to allow these to be 

 examined by botanists, the same result w'ould be obtained, at least as to ac- 

 curacy of nomenclature, as if the whole of the genera and species were 

 assembled in one national garden. We have explained this cooperative sys- 

 tem, at length, in the Gardener's Magazine, vol. xi, p. 600., and it is needless 

 to say that it is as applicable to every other country as to England, and to 

 every other large town as to London. The practice might, therefore, be 

 adopted in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh and Dublin ; and in that of 

 Exeter, for the south of England ; Bristol and Liverpool, for the west ; 

 York, for a central situation ; Norwich, Lincoln, and Hull, for the east ; and 

 Newcastle and Carlisle, for the north. 



The number of works which have been written, exclusively devoted to the 

 description and uses of trees and shrubs, shows, in a general point of view, 

 the estmiated importance of the subject by authors ; and, when we consider 

 the rapidity of the succession of these works within a comparatively limited 

 period, it shows the accumulation of knowledge which is continvially being 

 acquu-ed respecting ligneous plants. In this, as in all other branches of na- 

 tural history, the attention of iiaturalists was first directed to the objects 

 which more immediately surrounded them in their own country; afterwards 

 it extended to adjoining countries ; and lastl}', which seems to embrace the 

 most comprehensive view of the subject, to all the other countries in the 

 world which are similarly circumstanced in regard to climate and all that 

 affects the growth of trees and shrubs. Hence, the first books on dendrology 

 were merely local catalogues, enumerating the medical, or such other proper- 

 ties, as, in the age in which these books were produced, excited most attention j 

 while the last are scientific descriptions, with the geography, history, and 

 uses in ci\dlised society, of all the species and varieties enumerated. 



The conclusion which we draw with reference to the literature of trees 

 and shrubs is, that, though there are a great many excellent works on the 

 subject already before the public in the Enghsh, French, and German lan- 

 guages, yet none of these works embrace the W'hole subject, and bring it 

 down to the present time ; and that, consequently, we are justified in our 

 endeavour to comprise every thing which it is desirable to know, respecting 

 the trees and shrubs which will stand the open air in Britain, in our present 

 Encyclopaedia. 



