CHAP. II. 



CONSIDERED BOTANICALLY. 



211 



tree, because along with the young tree of the same species will always be 

 found the botanical specimens. These full-grown trees have, in every instance, 

 been drawn in the autumn, when the leaves were ready to drop off, at which 

 season alone they have their most forcible character. Some further observ- 

 ations on the subject of drawing trees will be found in the Gardener's Maga- 

 zine, vol. xi. p, 395. to p.412. ; and whoever wishes to become master of the 

 subject will consult the excellent work of Harding already referred to. 



CHAP. II. 



TREES AND SHRUBS CONSIDERED BOTANICALLY. 



The purpose for which we propose to glance at the study of trees and 

 shrubs, botanically, or as organised beings, is, to explain cur reasons for the 

 arrangement which we have adopted in placing them together; for distin- 

 guishing between species and varieties ; and for the scientific descriptions 

 which we have adopted. It must be evident to the reader, that, before any 

 use can be made of the history of any tree or shrub, means must be devised 

 for distinguishing what particular tree or shrub is meant. From the want of 

 these means, or the ignorance in this branch of knowledge of travellers, 

 many of their remarks on trees, and other organised objects, are of little 

 use ; because it is impossible for botanists to ascertain, from their descrip- 

 tions or names, to what species of tree or shrub these names or descriptions 

 apply. There can be no doubt that the difficulties in this respect are much 

 greater when applied to the whole vegetable kingdom, than when they are 

 limited to trees and shrubs ; and more especially when they are limited to 

 the trees and shrubs supposed to be actually growing in Britain. But even 

 among these, which, probably, do not greatly exceed 1500, there is, at pre- 

 sent, the greatest uncertainty in the application of names. In genera con- 

 sisting of many species, there are scarcely two of the London nurseries 

 where the same names are appHed to the same things; and what in one nur- 

 sery is considered as a variety, is, in many cases, elevated, in other nurseries, 

 to the rank of a species. Hence it becomes necessary, in a work like the 

 present, not only to give our reasons for the classification which we have 

 followed, but also for the specific distinctions which we have drawn, and for 

 the kind of descriptions and figures which we have adopted. These reasons 

 will form the subject of three separate sections. 



Sect. I. Of the Classification of Trees and Shrubs. 



Most authors who have hitherto produced works treating exclusively of 

 trees and shrubs, from Evelyn and Du Hamel to the present time, have 

 arranged them in the order of the alphabet. As we have, on various occa- 

 sions (see Encyc. vf Gnrd.,eA\t, 1835, pref.), given our objections to this 

 mode of arrangement in any work having pretensions to be scientific, and also 

 .shown that all the advantages of an al[)habetical arrangement in the body of 

 a work, of any greater extent than a pocket dictionary, may be obtained by 

 an alphabetical index, we shall not farther insist on the subject here ; neither 

 is it iiecessary for us to offer any arguments in favour of the arrangement 

 which we have adopted, which is that of the natural system, now so gene- 

 rally preferred, by botanists and scientific cultivators, before all others. It 

 may suffice to say, in favour of this system, that, by grouping together objects 

 which resemble one another in the greatest number of particulars, and which 

 are also most alike in their qualities, every thing which is known respecting- 

 the properties, uses, or culture, of any one of them, may be inferred, in a 

 great measure, of every individual in the whole group. Hence, in the case 



u 3 



