LOUDON'S ARBORETUM ET FRUTICETUM BRITANNIC UM. 
65 
and in which the superlative merits of trees and shrubs, as objects of ornament, 
are rendered apparent. 
" It should not be forgotten that all our most valuable plants, whether in agriculture, 
horticulture, or floriculture, are more or less indebted for their excellence to art. Our 
cultivated fruit trees are very different from the same trees in a wild state ; and our garden 
and field herbaceous vegetables so much so, that, in many instances, not even a botanist 
could recognise the wild and the cultivated plant to be the same species. There is reason 
to believe that the same means by which we have procured our improved varieties of 
fruit trees will be equally effective in producing improved varieties of timber trees. A 
few species, such as the oak, the elm, the magnolia, &c, have had improved varieties 
raised from seed by accidental crossing, or by the selection of individuals from multitudes 
of seedlings ; and variegated varieties, and varieties with anomalously formed leaves, or 
with drooping or erect shoots, have been procured from the sports of parts of different 
plants. But the mode of improvement by cross-fecundation is yet quite in its infancy 
with respect to timber-trees ; and to set limits to the extent and beauty of the new 
varieties which may be produced by it is impossible. There is no reason why we may 
not have a purple-leaved oak, or elm, or ash, as well as a purple-leaved beech ; or a 
drooping sweet chesnut as well as a drooping ash. The oak is a tree that varies astonish- 
ingly by culture ; and, when the numerous American varieties that have been introduced 
into this country shall have once begun to bear seed, there is no end to the fine hybrids 
that may be originated between them and the European species. In short, we see no 
difficulty in improving our ornamental trees and shrubs to as great an extent as we have 
done our fruit trees and shrubs ; though we are as yet only procuring new species from 
foreign countries, which may be considered as the raw material with which we are to 
operate." 
We subjoin the hints on grafting, which almost immediately follow, and from 
which a few of the objects of the work will be seen. 
" Every proprietor of a landed estate is either a planter, or possesses trees already 
planted. If he is in the former case, he will learn from this work to combine beauty with 
utility, by planting, in the outer margins of his natural woods or artificial plantations, and 
along the open rides in them, and in the hedgerows of his lanes and public roads, trees 
which are at once highly ornamental and more or less useful — in some cases, perhaps, 
even more useful — than the common indigenous trees for which they are substituted. If, 
on the other hand, his estate is already fully planted, he will learn from this work how 
he may beautify his plantations by a mode which never yet has been applied in a general 
way to forest trees ; viz., by heading down large trees of the common species, and grafting 
on them foreign species of the same genus. This is a common practice in orchards of 
fruit trees ; and why it should not be so in parks and pleasure-grounds, along the margins 
of woods, and in the trees of hedgerows, no other reason can be assigned than that it has 
not hitherto been generally thought of. Hawthorn hedges are common everywhere ; and 
there are between twenty and thirty beautiful species and varieties of thorn in our 
nurseries, which might be grafted on them. Why should not proprietors of wealth and 
taste desire their gardeners to graft some of the rare and beautiful sorts of tree thorns on 
vol. vi. — no. lxiii. k 
