42 
REMARKS ON ARBORETUMS. 
useful to familiarize tlie public with every variety of tree, and to ascertain decidedly 
its true character, will at once be admitted. Consequently, a national or suburban 
Arboretum must be extremely serviceable in many respects. How far the recreation 
furnished by such an establishment, or its influence on the minds and morals of 
visitors, falls short of what would be caused by a greater diversity of objects and 
arrangement, will be immediately obvious. 
To create an Arboretum in a private garden, far other circumstances must be 
taken into account ; and unless it be made quite a subordinate feature, and carried 
round the extreme outside of the pleasure-grounds, it will inevitably prove a palpable 
infringement on taste. To render it at all pleasing, it must be formed on a piece of 
ground of which the surface is exceedingly irregular, the direction considerably 
varied, the sides composed of old plantations of trees, advancing and receding in the 
greatest apparent disorder, and only one principal walk, having numerous and 
occasionally abrupt turns and windings passing through the centre. If possible, all 
prepared hillocks and artificial plots should be avoided, and the spaces between 
and beneath the trees be sown with grass, which might be mown about once in three 
weeks. Every large tree that can be left standing w T ith propriety, every practicable 
deviation from order and system, and every opening that admits a view of the 
distant park or country, are to be assiduously sought, in order to relieve the necessary 
wearisomeness of artificial classification. And if a small stream can by any means 
be conducted through the department, or any portion of it, a lively alleviation of 
the prevailing sameness will be obtained. 
All attempts at forming an Arboretum in a garden of limited extent, or flat 
surface, are sure to result in a displeasing and almost unbearable dulness, if a 
botanical arrangement is followed. It is only when the natural character of a plot 
is in itself beautiful, when every available assistance from art is employed, and the 
other divisions of the pleasure-grounds are immeasurably more extensive, that an 
Arboretum is at all tolerable. 
One of the chief principles of landscape gardening, and one likewise which, being 
founded on a peculiarity of the mental constitution, is as lasting and immutable as 
the feeling on which it is based, is that the scene which, in the smallest compass, 
exhibits the most diversified aspect, conformable wfith congruity, is the most credit- 
able to its designer, and productive of the largest amount of pleasure. Any 
arrangement, therefore, that associates plants in a landscape solely on account of their 
generic alliance, and not because they are found by proximity mutually to aug- 
ment each others beauty ; or which introduces a quantity of species that have 
neither interest nor ornament to recommend them to notice, must, if wanting 
stronger arguments in its support, be decidedly repudiated. 
The objectionable nature of Arboretums, except in places where there are 
unusual facilities for making them pleasing, have been before freely stated. We 
recur to the question here as it involves a standing principle, the violation of which, 
in any egregious manner, will entail a durable disgrace on the horticulturists of 
the age. 
