:J2 
THE FOREST TREES OF BRITAIN. 
" The author's object in preparing these 
little volumes, is to furnish the lover of nature 
with such information respecting the trees 
which are either natives of Great Britain, or 
naturalized in it, as will tend to impart addi- 
tional interest to his wanderings in the coun- 
try. The reader, therefore, must not expect 
to find the announcement of any botanical 
discovery, any suggestions of new methods of 
planting, or recommendations for the improve- 
ment of timber. If he desires information on 
these points, he is referred to the numerous 
excellent works already in existence which 
treat on these subjects. But if he be merely 
desirous of exploring the wonders of nature 
as it is displayed in the more stately vegetable 
productions of his native country, it is hoped 
that he will find in the following pages, not, 
indeed, enough to satisfy his curiosity, but to 
stimulate him to fresh research. The author 
assures him that even his own slender amount 
of scientific attainments can crowd the hedges 
and by-ways with countless miracles, which 
for the untrained eye have no being. 
" Scarcely any country in Europe is so 
favourable to the general study of the trees 
of temperate climates as England; for, with- 
out going so far as to assert that the number 
of native and introduced species exceeds that 
of all other states, it may be said with safety, 
that, whereas in most other countries the rare 
kinds are almost exclusively confined to bo- 
tanic gardens and public institutions, the 
wealth and good taste of the English gentry 
procures for all trees worthy of introduction, 
and adapted to the climate, admission into 
the numerous parks with which the whole 
land is studded ; where, without exception, 
for all purposes of observation and study, they 
are as much the property of the curious in- 
vestigator, as of the lord of the soil himself. 
Scarcely a town in England is beyond a rea- 
sonable distance of some lordly demesne, 
abounding in fine specimens of most of our 
native trees, as well as many foreign ones, to 
the former of which the author hopes to in- 
troduce hi3 readers in the following pages. 
" Technical terms have been as far as pos- 
sible avoided; but since, in describing the 
structure of a tree, it is necessary to apply to 
the several parts the conventional terms as- 
signed to each part in scientific works, it has 
been judged advisable to give a general but 
slight sketch of the anatomical structure of a 
tree belonging to the class in which all the 
British trees are comprised." — Introd. pp. ix. x. 
The introduction to the volume gives us as 
much of the physiology of vegetation as is 
necessary for the general reader ; and the 
illustrations to this portion are acceptable, 
because they are not those common-place 
examples that have become contemptible by 
their familiarity. The volume is not the 
work of a book-maker. There is no smack 
of the compilation which mars nearly all the 
modern works on gardening, botany, and even 
the treatises on simple subjects. It is a work 
after our own heart, at least as much so as 
any we have ever found. Any reader of the 
treatises which grace our volumes, will re- 
member that they are never ushered in by 
long discussions on the locality of the plant, 
or speculations on matters which do not con- 
cern the culture. It has been too much the 
fashion to precede the actual matter that is 
wanted, by long and often tedious lectures on 
botany, that have been published a hundred 
times before. The author of the present 
work has given a very concise understandable 
sketch of the anatomical structure of plants, 
which we feel more than half inclined to 
quote for its intrinsic merit. It is true that 
under the head of " Introduction" he com- 
prises a brief, but not a botanical, description 
of many of the orders, with examples and 
sketches, illustrating some leading tree be- 
longing to it ; but this is all new, it is a part 
of the subject itself. The portion of scien- 
tific matter, generally the most dry and the 
least interesting, is, as we have already ob- 
served, brief; and we like it because of its 
rare merit, — the condensation of much in little, 
and we cannot resist the temptation to quote 
a calm but sharp rap on the knuckles for the 
pompous but empty professors of the present 
day, and a just and dignified tribute to the 
genius of Linnagus, brought in, too, without 
any apparent effort, as the spontaneous effu- 
sion arising from a conviction of the great 
injustice done by the comparative worms of 
the present age to one of the greatest lights 
that ever shone on the natural history of 
vegetation. The author says, speaking of the 
organs of generation in plants, — 
" On the number, relative lengths, com- 
binations, and position of these essential 
organs, Linnasus founded his artificial system 
of the arrangement of plants, the class being 
for the most part decided by reference to the 
stamens, the order being dependent on the 
pistils. It is now unfortunately too much the 
custom to decry the system of Linnaaus, and 
to speak of his time as ' the dark age of 
botany ;' but its great inventor himself con- 
fessed it to be imperfect, and recommended it 
only as a substitute for some undiscovered 
system, which should associate plants of simi- 
lar structure ; his own method being open to 
the objection, that it brought together those 
which were not physiologically connected, and 
separated many which were closely related. 
Modern botanists have freely availed them- 
