78 
TOPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
TREES.* 
W ITHIN tlie last few months it has been our pleasant duty to notice two 
books by Mr. F. G. Heath — the “ FernJWorld ” and the “Fern Paradise/’ 
and we have now received a third volume by the same author, entitled “ Our 
Woodland Trees/’ with which we are if possible even more pleased than 
with the writer’s earlier works. It may at first appear, as it did to us, that 
a popular book on trees was unfortunate in making its debut at a time 
11 When all aloud the wind doth blow, 
And coughing drowns the parson’s saw, 
And birds sit brooding in the snow, 
And Marian’s nose looks red and raw.” 
But Mr. Heath is such a thorough enthusiast in his admiration of nature 
that his new book must, we feel sure, give delight to readers of almost any 
age, no matter how ungenial their surroundings may be. Though “ the 
leaves have fallen, and lie scattered and dead on hill-side and in hollow, yet 
trees are lovely still,” and Mr. Heath’s agreeable and chatty descriptions of 
English woodland scenery seem actually to bring to one’s senses the pleasant 
scent of the hawthorn and the honeysuckle, even in the midst of trees 
burdened with snow and glittering in the winter sunshine with pendant 
icicles. The plan of the book is extremely unpretentious, and it is perhaps 
to this that it owes its principal charm. Beginning with a brief explanation 
of the growth of a tree, its structure and its development, in the second 
part of the book Mr. Heath conducts us on “ Some Woodland Rambles ” in 
and about the New Forest; and here it is that he has so favourable an 
opportunity for the display of his intense appreciation of the charms of 
English scenery. Lending to the actual beauties of the New Forest an 
increased and more romantic charm are the innumerable historical asso- 
ciations which cluster around this early Norman hunting ground. And it 
would perhaps be difficult in the whole of England to select a spot more 
suitable for illustrating the beauties of English Woodland scenery than that 
which Mr. Heath has chosen. lie speaks, too, with so keen and loving an 
appreciation of the charming scenery through which he wanders as to carry 
with him all but the most unsympathetic of readers : the ivy seems to 
cling kindly round his heart, and the sweet-scented honeysuckle to twine 
its branches around his imagination — he writes as it were in a bower of wild 
flowers, and the sweet scents of the forest and the meadow hover with balmy 
freshness around his pen. A third part of the book is devoted to “ trees at 
Home,” and pleads eloquently for the increased cultivation of Trees in the 
neighbourhood of our town and suburban residences ; while the fourth part, 
occupying not far short of half the volume, consists of descriptions of 
British Woodland Trees — descriptions which are simple and untechnical, and 
which may be read and understood by all. While the woodcuts illustrating 
the earlier parts of the book having been admirably engraved from photo- 
graphs, or from the drawings of such well-known artists as Harrison Weir 
* “ Our Woodland Trees.” By F. G. Heath. 8vo. London : Sampson Low, 
Marston & Co., 1878. 
