The stone pine is more celebrated for its seed, which is eaten as a fruit, than for the value of its timber. In Italy and the South of France the seed is served up in the dessert; and according to Sir George Staunton it is known and relished by the Chinese. It is a handsome tree. The hooked pine, Pinus uncináta, is remarkable for the very high elevation of the site on which it will grow, mentioned at page 44. Those other pines belonging to this group, enumerated | below, are all more or less interesting and deserving of notice; but as the facts relative to the comparative value of their timber are not yet sufficiently numerous to lead to satisfactory conclusions, we must necessarily omit any further mention of them here. The frankincense, Virginian, or pitch, swamp, and pond pines are all natives of North America. The most valuable of these in their native climate appears to be the swamp, or longleaved pine, as Michaux terms it. He remarks, that its mean height is from sixty to seventy feet, with a diameter of fifteen or eighteen inches for threefourths of its length. The timber of the swamp pine is extensively used in the Floridas, Georgia, and the Carolinas. It has not yet exhibited any merits as a forest-tree in the climate of Britain. The Weymouth pine is of very quick growth in sheltered situations, and moderately moist sandy soils; but the timber is of a very inferior quality. It is extensively used in America, under the name of white pine; it is considered to have little strength, and affording but a feeble hold to nails. It is stated to reach the height of one hundred and fifty feet, and five in diameter.* It was cultivated in 1705, by the Duchess of Beaufort. The Siberian stone or Cembra pine, is a highly ornamental species in England; but its merits for timber have not been satisfactorily determined. It abounds in the Tyrol, where the wood The quantity of timber of this species of pine which passed down the Sorel for Quebec, between the 1st of May, 1807, and the 30th of July following, was 132,720 cubic feet of square wood, 160,000 of common boards, 67,000 feet of planks two inches thick, 20 masts, and 4545 logs. It is brought to the market of New Orleans from a distance of 2900 miles. At Liverpool, in 1808, the cubic foot was 60 cents, and planks of two inches by twelve four cents a foot.-N. A. Sylya, vol, iii. p. 171. is preferred to common deal for flooring, wainscoting, and other kinds of joiner's work. It appears to have been confounded with the Pinus pygmaa, but the species are very distinct. The Pinus Lambertiána was introduced in 1827, by Mr. Douglas, collector to the Horticultural Society of London. In its native soil, the north-west coast of America, it appears to be a tree of gigantic growth, and of great longevity. See (*) p. 70. We come now to consider the last group or section of the pine tribe, or those with leaves disposed in tufts or little bundles surrounding a bud. The first and most valuable of these is the common larch. Scarcely any species of forest-tree has received so much attention and favour from planters, in a given series of years, as this tree; and our space will not allow of the simple mention of the names of the numerous eminent individuals, who have put its real and assumed merits to the test of trial, much less enable us to detail the various facts and opinions brought forward on the subject. Its merits are stated to have been known so early as the time of Julius Cæsar, who calls it lignum igni impenetrabile.* It is a native of the South of Europe and of Siberia, inhabiting the sides of the mountains, in the local hollows of which it attains to the largest dimensions. The first mention of its culture in England is given in Parkinson's Paradisus in 1629; and Evelyn, in 1664, mentions a larch tree of good stature at Chelmsford, in Essex. It further appears to have been introduced into Scotland in 1734 by Lord Kames. But the merit of making known its valuable properties as a timber tree for the climate of Britain, appears to be due to the Duke of Athol, who planted it at Dunkeld in 1741. The rapid growth of these and of other trees of the same species planted successively by that nobleman, and the valuable properties of the timber of such as were felled, realized the high character previously bestowed upon it by foreign and British authors, who were followed by others, such as Doctor Anderson, Watson, Bishop of Landaff, Marshall, Professor Martyn, Nicol, Ponty, Sang, *Harte's Essays, Professor Martyn in Mill, Gard. Dict. and Monteith, all confirming and further extolling the valuable properties of the tree, which has induced a somewhat general belief, that the larch is the most valuable of forest-trees, even taking precedence of the oak. It is no wonder, therefore, that the larch has been planted, and largely, in almost every kind of soil; and as it is not exempted from the influence of that natural law to which every other species of tree is subject, namely, that which restricts to peculiar soils the perfect development of all the parts of their structure and successful progress of growth to the state of full maturity or perfection-in many instances plantations of it have failed in making a return of the expected advantages, inferior even to the Scotch pine, not to mention the oak, elm, and ash, of greater value on a similar soil. On soils of the nature alluded to, namely, wet clays, springy gravels, and wherever stagnant moisture could not escape, the larch, after attaining to eighteen or twenty-five years growth, gives evidence of premature decay, or a suspension of healthy progress of growth, and when felled exhibits unsound timber, commencing in the centre of the leading roots, and penetrating upwards into the body of the tree. (See page 74.) The instances are numerous which have come under our own observation of the fact now stated; and we mention it, not with a view to detract from its intrinsic value, or to discourage its propagation, but as a caution against the indiscriminate planting of it in soils without exception or without due examination. On declivities, and even in hollows, where clays abound, but where there is also a drainage for the superfluous water, the larch we have found to attain to great perfection*. The pruning of larch and other nonreproductive trees was mentioned at page 66. The comparative value of the red and black species of larch has not yet been sufficiently proved; so far, however, as the trials have proceeded, the opi* Where stagnant moisture of the soil prevails, a comparatively great humidity of the atmosphere accompanies it, hence it is that the bad effects of unseasonable frosts or such as happen late in spring or early in autumn are always most severe on trees in such situations, and to which the larch is very obnoxious at that season when its shoots are in a young and tender state. nion is greatly in favour of the common or white larch. The Cedar of Lebanon, Pinus cédrus, so celebrated by the ancients for the valuable properties of its wood, such as continuing sound for a thousand or two thousand years, yielding an oil famous for preserving books and writings, destroying noxious insects, &c. has not been proved in the climate of Britain to afford timber of a valuable quality; it is also more difficult to propagate and of slower growth in its first stages from seed than the firs, pines, and larches to which it is allied: its culture, therefore, appears to have been confined in this country to parks and lawns, and doubtless there is no forest-tree that, when placed singly, or in small groups, confers such an air or impression of ancient grandeur and dignity upon a mansion and its grounds as a full grown Cedar of Lebanon. It is a native of the coldest parts of Mount Libanus, where now, according to the accounts of travellers, it is found in small numbers. Rauwolf, in 1575, saw only twenty-four sound trees and two old decayed ones. Maundrell, who visited the supposed site of this most ancient forest in 1696, could reckon only sixteen large trees, but many small ones. The largest measured twelve yards six inches in girth and thirty-seven yards in the spread of its branches. Professor Martyn remarks that Solomon's four-score thousand hewers must have considerably thinned the forest of Libanus. The same excellent author further observes, that we have now probably more cedars in England than are left on Mount Libanus a fact which, when conjoined with that regarding the present state of the natural forests of America, mentioned at page 87, should afford matter for deep and serious reflection to those who have it in their power to plant land, comparatively waste or unproductive, in a judicious manner, but who hesitate thus to benefit their posterity and their country, from the fallacious impression that the natural forests of America and of the north of Europe, unrenovated, as they continue to be from the neglect of planting, are inexhaustible, and will continue to supply the wants of the civil and naval architectural sciences and arts of this country. Heavy-wooded...ponderósa..N.W.Am. 50 Gerardi...Nepal First-Those with leaves solitary, scattered Gerard's.... FIR-TREE. Silver round the branches. Crooked Native of Ft. Roman ...picea...... Switz. 30-80 Balm of Gilead ..balsamica ..Virginia..50 Hemlock spruce..canadensis..N.Am. 10-30 ..ábies وو .N.Europe100 ..álba... .N.Am.50-80 Norway ..nigra.. ..rúbra.. .... .clanbrassiliána -45-50 -30-50 Double balsam... Fraséri.... Third-Those with leaves varying from two to three. Pond, or fox-tail..serotína.... Fifth-Those with leaves in fives. Weymouth......stróbus .... N. Amer. 100 Siberian stone..cembra, or Sib. Lambert's ...... Pigmy 40 Bhotan.. .sylvestris...Scot. 30-100 •pináster.... S. Europe 60 ..pínea.... .... Ornamental, or whose value as Timber-trees Pungent. ..pûngens. .N.Am.40-60 Aleppo Jersey. tree American pitch-resinósa ....... • 50 aphernousli (Swit.) 50-60 lambertiána N.W. Am. In looking over the above list of forest-trees, it may seem to require a reason for not arranging the names of the trees in alphabetical order, instead of adopting the natural system of classification mentioned at the commencement of this enumeration, at page 93; particularly as such a mode, under the circumstances of a partial selection from the whole of the vegetable kingdom, must necessarily, as there stated, exhibit a broken series of connexion between the individual families or groups of trees brought forward. The index, however, will supply this apparent inconvenience, and the advantages to the young forest-planter of being early acquainted with the affinities or natural connexions of different families and species of trees with each other, will, by a little experience in the practice of planting, be fully appreciated by him, should he even confine his examination to the structure of the seed, which is given in the botanical character of each genus or family of trees. The classes and orders of the Natural and Linnean systems, under which each genus of forest-trees stand, will also point out to him where may be found the discriminating characters of distinction of the different species, as in the Species Plantarum, or in systematically arranged Floras, where such have been published, of the plants of different countries; and in the perusal of these, should a doubt occur, the above enumeration will show whether the tree or trees in question have been introduced into British planting. The height of the trees mentioned in the list is either such as we have ascertained by actual measurement, or have been assured of by respectable authority. The advantages resulting to individuals locally, and to the whole community, from judicious planting, have been noticed at page 2, and subsequently in the course of these pages; and what judicious planting consists in, and what are the consequent profitable results from it, have also been pointed out by an appeal to facts obtained from culture, observation, and experience; which, if examined, can hardly fail to arrest the attention of those who have given little of it to this important subject, but who, nevertheless, possess the means thus to enrich their landed possessions in their own life-time, benefit their posterity, and their country. But it is not planting judiciously at first, it has been shown, that will accomplish those important results, without the essential addition of subsequent attention to skilful culture and management of the plantations throughout the entire progress of the trees to maturity, according to the purposes for which the produce of individual trees or species of trees are most valuable, and consequently their proper period of duration in the soil; these important points have been dwelt upon, and frequently urged in the course of these pages (16, 32, 61, 64, 66, and 45, 50, 67, 68, 71); and it may be here added, that there is more absolute loss to individuals who possess plantations, but who neglect the application of judicious culture to such, than accrues from the like neglect of the healthy progress of any other agricultural crop whatever. Besides, it is an evil, that this neglect leads to an erroneous opinion of the utility, and important private and public value of judicious planting, and induces many who have it in their power to plant extensively to omit it, and leave that land barren and waste, which might otherwise be so beneficially occupied in the growth of timber, and amelioration of defective local climates. The great extent of waste-land in this kingdom has been stated at page 85. By referring to the county surveys, and to other sources of information, it will be found that a large portion of the waste, or comparatively unproductive lands, in this kingdom, is capable of being profitably employed in the growth of timber; and, taking the proportion of one-twentieth part only of the whole, there will be upwards of three millions and a half of acres available for the purpose, or say, one million and a half of acres for trees, and two millions of acres for conversion to down-pasture, or partly tillage, by the aid of the shelter and amelioration of the local climates produced by the judicious disposition of the plantations. The facts and observations brought forward in evidence of the public necessity for the extension of forest-tree planting, as well as the advantages accruing from it to private estates, need not here be repeated; neither need it be recalled to mind, that the perpetual consumption of timber from the natural forests of this country, without any aid being afforded in return to renovate or keep up a succession of trees by planting, at last caused that scarcity of timber for civil and naval architecture which first led to the culture of timber-trees as an article of profit, and which has brought the art of arboriculture to a higher degree of perfection in Britain than in any other country. But a similar consumption without renovation is now going on in those countries from which we fallaciously expect an inexhaustible supply of timber; and we cannot but press upon the attention of those in whose power it rests, and whose duty it is to provide more largely for posterity than our ancestry has provided for us, that with the more perfect knowledge now possessed of the art of planting, the large extent of fit, but unoccupied soil, and the superabundance of unemployed labourers, to effect the work to its fullest extent, this important object ought to be forwarded with that zeal, energy, and skill, which have been already displayed by some few individuals, and have been uniformly attended with success. ORNAMENTAL PLANTING. In the preceding parts of this treatise we have confined ourselves almost entirely to planting for profit, and have merely enumerated with brief remarks those trees, which, though incapable of being cultivated with advantage in our climate for economical purposes, produce striking effects in landscape scenery, and are of great value in the adornment of parks and pleasure grounds. They are not for the most part scarce in the nurseries of Great Britain, yet as we have observed that the planting of exotic trees is comparatively neglected, a few pages may be not unprofitably occupied, in pointing out such as seem peculiarly deserving of attention. The beauty of English park scenery is universally admitted: the constant source of fresh admiration to foreigners, and of delight to ourselves, it may, perhaps, be briefly described, as the art of imitating, in small compass, the most lovely scenes of external nature. In a pursuit so fascinating, the most elegant mind may find amusement, the most active benevolence room in which to dilate. In eliciting from crude materials new forms of beauty; in opening the valley; converting the barren hillside into wood; in expanding the lake, and clothing a once naked district with luxuriance, the worth of an estate is increased, health improved, and charity the most useful dispensed, for 'Hence the poor are clothed, the hungry fed, The general practice cannot be much improved, but some beauties of detail may be gained, by a more frequent employment of foreign vegetation. Every one is aware of the charming effect of the weeping willow: this is a case in point. The light ramifications of the Robinia contrast beautifully with the bolder form of the oak; the hiccory, or black American walnut, relieves the heavy masses of the elm; the lucid green of the Spanish chestnut is well opposed to the dinginess of the beech; and the brilliant tints of many North American trees when in decay add a new and remarkable feature to the autumnal landscape. But the interest arising from the adoption of foreign trees into domestic scenery is not confined to their picturesque effects. They remind us of the climes whence they come, of the scenes with which they were associated. In exploring a well-selected arboretum, the eternal snows of the Himalaya, the savannahs of the Missouri, the untrodden forests of Patagonia, the vallies of Lebanon, pass in review before us : we seem to wander in other climes, to converse with other nations. Although few foreign trees become permanent with us, many bear our climate well, yet, tried by the test of spontaneous propagation seem not to be capable of perfect naturalization. No genus is of more frequent occurrence in England than the hardy lime-tree, of which at least three nearly allied species inhabit the continent. In European Russia they abound, and supply the bark from which the mats so largely used in our gardens are made. Here, though with attention the lime may be raised from seeds, nothing is rarer than to meet with a spontaneous seedling, even near individuals of great size, covered with myriads of seeds, mature, but, by some unsuitableness of climate, bereaved of competent vigour K |