PREFACE.

The main object which induced the author to undertake this Work was, thehope of diffusing more generally, among gentlemen of landed property, a tastefor introducing a greater variety of trees and shrubs in their plantations andpleasure-grounds. He had observed, for a number of years, that, though manynew and beautiful trees and shrubs were annually introduced from foreigncountries into our botanic gardens and nurseries, yet the spread of theseplants in the grounds of country residences was comparatively slow; and thatnot only the new sorts were neglected, but many of the fine old species andvarieties, which had been in British nurseries for upwards of a century, wereforgotten by planters, and had ceased to be propagated by commercial gardeners.In short, it appeared to the author, that the general taste of the country fortrees and shrubs bore no just proportion to the taste which prevailed in itfor fruits, culinary productions, and flowers. It also appeared to him, that,while the numerous horticultural societies now established in the BritishIslands had powerfully promoted the general taste for horticultural and flori-cultural productions, they had rather neglected arboriculture and landscape-gardening.

Viewing trees and shrubs as, next to buildings, the most important ornamentswhich can be introduced into a country; and considering them, in this respect,greatly superior to herbaceous plants, from the little care that trees and shrubsrequire when once properly planted, and their magnitude, and permanent in-fluence when grown up, on the general scenery of the country; the author feltdesirous of pointing out the great importance of their more general distributionand culture. In order to impress this on the minds of proprietors and theirfamilies, and especially on the rising generation among them, he thought itbest to adopt, as the main feature of his plan, the description and portraitureof such species and varieties of trees and shrubs as are actually in cultivationin the country, and as grow vigorously in it; referring to gardens or groundswithin a limited distance of London, where these species or varieties may beseen in a living state, and to nurseries where they are propagated for sale, andstating the price for which they might be purchased in England, in France andGermany, and in North America. He has thought it advisable to give, not onlybotanical specimens, but portraits of the greater number of species of trees; inorder, by a palpable representation of their forms and magnitudes, to make astronger impression on the mind of the reader. These pictorial illustrations areof two kinds ; first, portraits of trees of ten or twelve years’ growth, taken fromspecimens growing in 1834, 1835, or 1836, within ten miles of London, and alldrawn to the same scale of 1 in. to 4 ft.; and, secondly, of full-grown trees, alsoall drawn to one scale, viz. 1 in. to 13 ft., and for the most part growing withinthe same distance of London.

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