202 



SCIENCE or THE STUDY OP TREES, 



PART ii; 



and horticultural interest connected in our rainds with young trees, and so 

 delightful to us is the idea of preparing the soil in such a manner as to cause 

 them to grow with extraordinary rapidity, that, if any one were to present us 

 with a timbered estate, the first thing we should do would be, to cut down 

 all the old trees, and to plant young ones. 



In treatmg of trees individually, in the Arboretum Sritanniciim, it will form 

 an important part of their description, to indicate the kind of expression pro- 

 duced by their forms, their attitudes, and their other pictorial qualities ; and of 

 their history, to record all those facts respecting each species, which may 

 lead to interesting associations, whenever it occurs, whether it be in a young 

 or an old state. 



Sect. III. Of the Mode of dratoing Trees from Nature, in such a 

 Manner as to give the general pictorial Expression of the Species 

 of Tree delineated. 



In drawing trees from nature, with a view to their introduction into land- 

 scape composition, the selection is very different from that made when the 

 intention is to show trees as single objects. Where trees are to be inti'oduced 

 into landscape composition along with buildings, animals, or other trees, the 

 symmetry or beauty of the form of the tree, considered by itself, is a matter of 

 comparatively little importance. 



A tree which is mutilated, the branches of which are ill balanced, or imper- 

 fectly clothed with tufts of foliage, will group better with other trees or 

 objects, than a tree which is complete in itself. Such trees are perfectly well 

 suited to the landscape-painter ; but, except in the case of transplanting 

 very large trees in order to produce immediate effect, they are of no use to 

 the landscape-gardener, the ornamental planter, or the planter with a view to 

 profit or use. To represent a tree mutilated or in any way imperfect, or to 

 represent a group or whole composed of such trees, would be to exhibit what 

 no art of the gardener could produce ; and, therefore, what to him is use- 

 less, however valuable it might be in a picturesque point of view. Our object, 

 in giving portraits of trees, has reference almost entirely to the gardenesque, 

 to the ornamental, and to the useful. The aim of our portraits, therefore, is 

 natural beauty and expression, with reference to the kind of tree drawn ; and 

 not beauty and character with reference to any description of graphic art. It 

 is, in short, the beauty of truth, not local or peculiar truth, or truth with 

 reference to any mode of depicting it ; that is, not a portrait of a tree with the 

 peculiarities which it ma}^ happen to have at a particular time and place, from 

 peculiar circumstances ; or a portrait taken to show the beauties of any par- 

 ticular style of sketching, drawing, or painting. It is not the portrait of a 

 tree which has been overtopped by another tree, been improperly pruned, a 

 part of it scorched by fire, or a part of the leaves destroyed by insects ; or a 

 portrait taken to show the picturesque effect of broken lights and shadows, 

 breadth of masses, deep tone of colours, the sharpness of lines printed from 

 copper or steel, or the softness of touches printed from zinc or stone. No : 

 to draw a tree with any of these sorts of pecuHarities would be in the same 

 taste as it would be to give, as a specimen of the human being, a portrait of 

 a man mutilated or deformed by accident or disease, or in a grotesque attitude 

 or dress; or, as a specimen of the human face, a portrait of one disfigured 

 with warts or pimples. This would be to portray not merely the individual 

 instead of the species, but the individual under circumstances which had no- 

 thing to do with his character or expression, whether moral or graphic, as 

 an individual. 



It being agreed, then, that the object in drawing trees for the Arboretum 

 Britannicum is to give a faithful portrait of the species, neglecting such circum- 

 stances as may be pecuHar to the individual, the next point is to determine the 

 season of the year at which the portrait is to be taken. With a view to this 

 object, trees may be divided into three kinds : those the greatest beauty of 



