RECENT INTRODUCTION. 



2,29 



exhibit most conspicuously those more external and pro- 

 minent characters which are apt to strike the eye of even 

 a casual observer. We have thus a happy union of the 

 scientific and the popular elements. Such collections of 

 trees and shrubs are extremely interesting to the botanist^ 

 as presenting to his outward eye^, in material, and living 

 presence^ the various forms which in their more refined 

 relations enter into his abstract and recondite arrange- 

 ments j but they also possess much interest to the general 

 student of nature^, exhibiting, as they do, the number 

 and diverse characters of the trees and underwood which 

 tenant the mighty forests, the tangled brakes, the stunted 

 scrubs, and barren heaths, that cover the valleys, plains, 

 and mountains of the colder regions of the globe. 



Arboretums are only of recent introduction as deco- 

 rative accompaniments to country residences and public 

 gardens. For a long period, indeed, a considerable variety 

 of trees and shrubs have been cultivated in parks and 

 pleasure-grounds; and flowering shrubs, in particular, 

 have always been favourite materials of ornament in 

 flower-gardens. But scientific classifications of these 

 forms of vegetable life received little attention previous 

 to the formation, in 1823, of the arboretum in the 

 garden belonging to the London Horticultural Society, 

 at Turnham Green. Since that great and meritorious 

 collection attracted the notice which was due to it, many 

 similar, though generally less extensive, arboretums 

 have been formed; so that now no moderate-sized 

 country residence or public park and garden can be con- 

 sidered complete unless something of the kind enters 

 into their arrangements. Undoubtedly the finest arbo- 

 retum now in existence, at least so far as we are aware, 

 is that in the Royal Gardens at Kew, though even there 



