gt ae x ‘ ‘ / - ; ' ‘ a jm ’ ‘ : ) a . ‘ le we We A +. i , + aA c-. te> - Fy . a i P RTOARALLY AND OT ARICMLLY Te 4 * O10 BARNS iy a tre mete *” , ry - ie ‘ Tet t yn . ‘ (ae ma te : TOK, fhe): in igh c ‘of r ey ' i . / . 4 et 8 C = - tea-e fites 7 \ ‘ f , gd ‘ t é . yr ’ ‘ #, / / 4 ; = ‘ 3 - - for. ‘ j EA'tY * 4 8 ? 7 c } - . ; SYLVA FLORIFERA: THE SHRUBBERY HISTORICALLY AND BOTANICALLY TREATED. VOL, I. ran sit) ; hk \ i Nhe tr ioe Ps ets Pte oo ) : oT a n y ¢‘ fa . ~ ¥ oo. ole ME pe Lonpon : : gs ena | a eas? Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode, — ; 7 . _New- Street-Square. SYLVA FLORIFERA: Sbhrubberyp | HISTORICALLY AND BOTANICALLY TREATED; WITH OBSERVATIONS ON THE FORMATION OF \ ORNAMENTAL . PLANTATIONS, AND PICTURESQUE SCENERY. ByyEN RY -PHILLIPS,: F-H.S. AUTHOR OF POMARIUM BRITANNICUM, AND HISTORY OF CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. Sylva nemus non alta facit: tegit arbutus herbam : Rosmaris et lauri, nigraque myrtus olent. Nec densz foliis buxi, fragilesque myrice, Nec tenues cytisi, cultaque pinus abest. Ovip, Ars Am. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. aol wi LONDON: ~ PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1823. opUFORy ly LIBRARY Si, & Emy of scit® Sota n+ SO Y3 5157 _PY¢ oie SYLVA FLORIFERA. LABURNUM.—LABURNUM: CYTISUS. Natural order, Papilionacee, or Leguminose. A genus of the Diadelphia Decandria class. 24 Laburnum, rich In streaming gold.” *¢ Nor might she fear in beauty to excel, From whose fair head such golden tresses fell.” Ts beautiful alpine tree was known to the Greeks under the name of ’Aveyupis, and its emetic qualities gave rise to their proverb, Anagrin commovere, “ to work one’s own woe.” It is observed that the bees. avoid the flowers of this tree, whose leaves are so agreeable to the goat. Theocritus, the poet, who flourished VOL. II. B vd SYLVA FLORIFERA. at Syracuse, in Sicily, about 282 years before the Christian era, remarks, that the wolf pur- sues the goat with as much eagerness as the goat hunts for the laburnum; and Virgil has celebrated it for augmenting the milk of goats. Pliny tells us, that the laburnum belongs to the Alps, and that it was not commonly known in Italy when he wrote his Natural History. He says, the wood is white and hard; and that the bees would not even settle upon the blossoms of this tree.* The laburnum has long graced the British gardens, as we learn from Gerard that it flourished in Holborn in 1596. What would be the astonishment of this excellent old herbarist, could he be recalled, to see each avenue of his garden formed into streets ; houses erected on his parsley beds, and chimneys sprung up as thick as his aspara- gus; churches occupying the site of his arbours, and his tool-house, perhaps, con- verted into the British Museum, where. is safely housed the lasting memorial of his labours. In vain would he now seek wild plants in Mary-le-bone, where each blade of grass is transformed into granite, and every hawthorn hedge changed for piles of bricks : carriages rattling where snails were formerly * Book xvi. chap. 18. LABURNUM. 3 crawling. His ear would be assailed by the shrill ery of “ Milk below,” and the deep tone of “ Old clothes,” where he had for- merly retired to listen to the melody of the early lark, or the plaintive tones of the night- ingale. A breath of unadulterated air, The glimpse of a green pasture, how they cheer The citizen, and brace his languid frame ! ” 66 Yet how careful have they been to keep it as distant as possible from thenarrow yardof our metropolitan church, which stands on one of the finest sites in the universe, as will be seen when the age arrives that will level the build- ings which obstruct the view of it from the Thames. Should the cathedral of Saint Paul’s ever be seen forming the centre of a crescent, which would open to the south, and whose base would be washed by the noble but now obscured river, it would become the most splendid spot, and the most delightful pro- menade that the world could boast. What would not the citizens give for so fine and healthy a spot, where themselves and their families might breathe an air, scarce less healthy than that which they must now go many miles to enjoy? What wealthy citizen is there who would not contribute largely to see the finest church on the earth stand at the B 2 4 SYLVA FLORIFERA. head of a lawn, which gradually ascends from the waves of his boasted river ; and what situ- ation could be so eligible for the erection of national galleries, libraries, and museums, as this would offer: — but let us return to the shrubbery ; for ** ‘The statesman, lawyer, merchant, man of trade, Pants for the refuge of a peaceful shade.” The laburnum was called Bean-trefoile tree in the time of Gerard, because the seeds are shaped like the bean, and the leaves like the trefoil. It had also the name of Peascod tree in that age, but which has long given way to that of the Latin Laburnum, which Haller says is evidently derived from the Alpine name, L’aubours. In French it is named Cytise des Alpes, Abours, and Faux ebénier, because the wood was often used.as a substitute for ebony. The laburnum is a tree of the third height, and flowers in the shrubbery from eight or ten to twenty feet in height. As it is of the middle stature, so should it generally form a centrical situation. Dark evergreens, of the larger kind, form a good back ground to this cheerful, flowering, and graceful tree, whose yellow pendent blossoms shine more conspi- cuously by the contrast. Its extending branches should wave their golden treasures LABURNUM. 5 over the snowy balls of the guelder rose, or the delicate tints of the Persian lilac; whilst the tall eastern lilac may dispute the prize of beauty with its gay neighbour from the Alps, and our native hawthorn’s silvery petals shine not in vain ; for - “* Thus is Nature’s vesture wrought To instruct our wand’ring thought ; Thus she dresses green and gay, To disperse our cares away.” We have introduced no tree that is more ornamental to our plantations than the labur- num ; it relieves alike the gloomy clumps of mountain firs, and the borders of the forest shades; it enlivens the holly hedgerow, and embellishes the cottage garden. It would also become a profitable timber, were we to plant it for that purpose ; for the wood is of a hard nature, and approaches near to green ebony. Mr. Boutcher tells us, that he saw a large table, and a dozen of chairs made of this wood, which were considered by judges of elegant furniture to be the finest they had ever seen. Its use for these purposes is com- mon in France, but it has seldom been suf- fered to stand long enough in this country to arrive at any size. Mr. Martyn says, he has seen trees of the laburnum, in old Scotch gar- dens, that were fit to cut down for the use of B 3 6 SYLVA FLORIFERA. the timber, being more than a yard in girth, at six feet from the ground; and these had been broken and abused, otherwise might have been much larger. This able writer tells us, in his edition of Miller’s Gardener’s Dictionary, that the laburnum grows very fast, and is extremely hardy, and is well worth propagating upon poor, shallow soils, and in exposed situations. His Grace the late Duke of Queensberry sowed.a great quantity of the seeds of this tree upon the side of the downs, at his seat near Amesbury, in Wiltshire, where the situation was very much exposed, and the soil so shal- low, .that few trees would grow there ; yet in this place the young trees were twelve feet high in four years’ growth, and became a shelter to the other plantations, for which purpose'they were designed. In neighbour- hoods where hares or rabbits abound, these trees will require protection, as they will otherwise bark them in the winter ; and hence it has been suggested, to plant laburnum seeds in plantations infested with these destructive animals, which will touch no other plant so long as atwig of laburnum remains, Though eaten to the ground in winter, it will spring again the next season; and thus constantly supply food for this kind of game. A small LABURNUM. 7 sum laid out by a farmer in this seed, and. judiciously sown in his hedges or coppices, would save his crops, as well as the planter’s young trees. Laburnums are recommended to be plant- ed thick, for the purpose of drawing them up, to form hop poles, which are said to be more durable than those of most other wood. Matthiolus speaks of its being used for mak- ing the best bows. It is found to char re- markably well; and the wood is esteemed also for making pegs, wedges, musical instru- ments, and a variety of purposes for which hard wood is required. The laburnum is easily propagated by seed, which it produces in great plenty. It is usu- ally sown in the month of March ; but young trees may generally be found in abundance where the trees have scattered their fruit. In forming plantations for poles or timber, the seeds should be sown where they are intended to remain ; but for the shrubbery, or orna- mental plantation, they should be removed, and their roots shortened, which will cause them to flower more abundantly. Children should be cautioned not to eat the seeds in the green state, which are violently emetic and dangerous. B 4 LARCH.— PINUS LARIX. Natural order, Conifere. A genus of the Monecia Monadelphia class. ee ** ‘The swain, in barren deserts, with surprise Sees larch trees spring, and sudden verdure rise.” Tue face of our country has, within the last thirty years, been completely changed by the numerous plantations of larch that have sprung up on every barren spot of these king- doms, from the southern shores to the ex- tremity of the north, and from the Land’s End to the mouth of the Thames. So great has been the demand for young trees of this species of pine, that one nurseryman in Edin- burgh raised above five millions of these trees in the year 1796. We have introduced no exotic tree that has so greatly embellished the country in general. Its pale and delicate green, so cheerfully enlivening the dark hue of the fir and pine, and its elegant spiral shape, contrasting with the broad spreading oak, is a no less happy contrast; whilst its stars of fasciculate foliage are displayed to LARCH. 9 additional advantage, when neighbouring with the broad-leafed zsculus, the glossy holly, the drooping birch, or the tremulous asp. The larch seems created for society, as it shines with additional Justre amidst. trees of every cast and character. ** Like some enchantress, with her magic wand, In treasures new she decks the smiling land.” The thanks of the present age, and the gra- titude of the next, are and will be given most sincerely to those noblemen and gen- tlemen who have so greatly contributed to the beauty of our rural scenes, and the profit of themselves and their heirs. These plant- ations display a most noble love of country, and generous provision for posterity; and that these liberal minded planters may long live to enjoy the beauties they have created, and reap the harvest they have sown, must be the fervent wish of every good Briton. «¢ Perhaps some sire, in life’s declining year, Those woods revisits, to his memory dear ; In infant days that planted by his hand, Now wave aloft, and decorate the land. For him the groves a smiling aspect wear, And fields and flowers his transport seem to share |»? The larch was considered by the ancients as amongst the most valuable timber trees, 10 SYLVA FLORIFERA. particularly for the purpose of building, being almost imperishable, and less inflammable than any other wood ; and we read of no tree that exceeded it in height. Amongst the timber which was brought to Rome for the purpose of building the bridge called Nau- machiaria, about the 20th year, a.p., was a larch that measured two feet square in thick- ness throughout, from end to end, and was of the extraordinary length of 120 feet; the tree must therefore have been not less than from 130 to 150 feet in height. Tiberius Cesar would not allow this wonderful trunk to be used in the erecting of the bridge then building, but commanded it to be placed where all persons might see it as a curiosity ; and where it remained for about thirty years, until Nero employed it in building his vast Amphitheatre. Amongst the Romans, the larch was employed, in preference to every other kind of wood, in buildings where strength and durability were required.* Pliny tells us, that the larch was not found to decay in buildings like other pine timber ; and that it burnt more like a stone than wood, never causing flame. ‘This quality of the larch was not unknown to Julis, as he calls it gnum igni impenetrabile. * Pliny, book xvi. chap. 40. LARCH. ll This timber seems to have been scarce in Rome during the Augustine age, as M. Vi- truvius Pollio, a celebrated architect of that period, attributes the sudden decay of build- ings erected in his time, in a great measure to the want of Jarch in the neighbourhood of Rome, it having been exhausted before his time; and the expense of bringing it from a distance, in those early days, would have been too great for common purposes. The larch is a native of the south of Europe and of Siberia ; it grows abundantly in Swit- zerland and in Provence, &c.: and as it must naturally create considerable interest in the generation that is rising with it in these king- doms, we shall endeavour to point out the very spot on which it first took root, and the circumstance to which the larch owes its birth ; and should the veracity of our account be disputed by any critical reviewers, we will call up all our classical and antiquarian friends to defend a point of so much importance, as that of connecting a beautiful idea with a beautiful tree. Behold then, in the graceful larches, the affectionate sisters of the ambi- tious Phaeton, who were metamorphosed into these trees, whilst sorrowing round the tomb of Apollo’s son on the borders of the Po. 12 SYLVA FLORIFERA. ‘«* And beat their naked bosoms, and complain, And call aloud for Phaéton, in vain: All the long night their mournful watch they keep, And all the day stand round the tomb and weep. Four times revolving the full moon. return’d, So long the mother and the daughters mourn’d ; When now the eldest, Phaéthusa, strove To rest her weary limbs, but could not move ; Lampetia would have help’d her, but she found Herself withheld, and rooted to the ground : A third in wild affliction, as she grieves, Would rend her hair, but fills her hands with leaves ; One sees her thighs transform’d, another views Her arms shot out, and branching into boughs. And now their legs, and breasts, and bodies stood Crusted with bark, and hard’ning into wood.” As the poplar has been found so abundantly in the neighbourhood of the river Po, it has been conjectured by some that it was that tree into which the daughters of Clymene were transformed ; but in a medal of Publius Acco- leius Lariscolus, the three sisters are repre- sented as transformed into larches; and_ it would certainly seem that Ovid rather meant the larch than the poplar, from the tears of the sorrowing trees, which agrees with the former, but not with the latter. Inde fluunt lacryme : stillataque sole rigeseunt De ramis electra novis: que lucidus amnis Excipit, et nuribus mittit gestanda Latinis. ** ‘The new-miade trees in tears of amber rin, Which, harden’d into value by the sun, LARCH. 13 Distil for ever on the streams below : The limpid streams their radiant treasure show, Mix’d in the sand; whence the rich drops convey’d, Shine in the dress of the bright Latian maid.” The Greeks call the larch Awaz, and the Latins after them Larix, from whence the Italian and Spanish name Larice, and the German Larchenbaum, from which we have evidently derived the English name. The French call it Méléze. The larch is known as the only tree whose foliage is deciduous, that produces cones, as all the other species of pines are evergreens. ‘The larch sends out its leaves in the month of April, of a beautiful pale and yellowish green, shaped like the narrow leaf of grass, and in little clusters of about forty each, disposed like the hairs of a painter’s brush, but which after- wards expand into rosettes or stars, which drop off in the autumn. The flowers appear also in April, and generally are of a fine crimson colour, which at first gives them an appearance something like small strawberries ; but the male flowers extend in length as the pollen ripens. The female flowers are collected into ege-shaped obtuse cones, which when ma- tured are from one to two inches in length, and whose scales protect the seeds in the same manner as the cones of the fir and cedar, &c. 14 SYLVA FLORIFERA. The larch was cultivated in this country as early as 1629, as it is mentioned by Parkinson, in “* TheCorollary to his Orchard;” but so late - as 1656, when the second edition was pub- lished, it was but little known; and as the tree is now more generally distributed over the country since his account of it, we shall give his own words, which were dictated for, and dedicated to the Queen of the unfortunate Charles the First, to whom Parkinson was herbalist. This author says, “ The larch tree, where it naturally groweth, riseth up to be as tall as the pine or firre tree; but in our land being rare, and nursed up but with a few, and those only lovers of rarities, it groweth both slowly and becommeth not high, the bark hereof is very rugged and thick, the boughs and branches grow one above another in a very comely order, having divers small yellowish knobs or bunches set thereon, at several distances ; from whence do. yearly shoot forth many small, long, and narrow smooth leaves together, both shorter and smaller, and not so sharp-pointed as either the pine or firre-tree leaves, which do not abide the winter as they do, but fall away every year, as other trees which shed their leaves and gain fresh every spring: the blossoms are very beautiful and delectable, being of an LARCH. 15 excellent fine crimson colour, which, standing among the green leaves, allure the eyes of the beholders to regard it with the more desire : it also beareth, in natural places, (but not in our land, that I could hear,) small soft cones or fruit, somewhat like unto cypresse nuts, when they are green and close.” It was not likely that this tree should have been cultivated during the commonwealth, which was the age for destroying our forest timber; but at the Restoration of Charles the Second, Evelyn stood forth as the champion of the British Sylva, and tells the nation, that there had flourished not long since a larch tree near Chelmsford, in Essex, of good sta- ture, “ which,” says he, “ sufficiently re- proaches our not cultivating so useful a ma- terial for many purposes where lasting and substantial timber is required.” Mr. Evelyn then tells us that the young larch tree that he had brought up with much care in his garden, was supposed to be dead by his gardener when the leaves fell off, which proves how little the nature of the larch was known in England even at that time. Mr. Drummond had some larches planted in Scotland as long back as 1734; and two larches were planted on the lawn of the Duke of Atholl’s seat at Dunkeld, in Perthshire, in 16 SYLVA FLORIFERA. the year 1741, the largest of which, in 1796, measured, at one foot eight inches from the ground, eleven feet eleven inches in circum- ference, and at twelve feet from the ground, eight feet two inches, at twenty-four feet the circumference was seven feet seven inches; at which time some of the younger larches mea- sured upwards of one hundred feet in height. These plants were originally sent from Lon- don in earthen pots, rather as a curiosity than from any expectation of their excellency; but they may now overlook whole forests of this timber, of which they have been the parent plant. ‘The larch having been ascertained to be of a hardy nature and quick growth, thriving better on a poor hungry soil than in a rich earth, and the utility of the timber being uni- versally acknowledged, these considerations induced the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, at London, to offer both honorary and pecuniary rewards for the propagation of this tree; and as long back as 1788, three gold medals and a premium of thirty pounds had been be- stowed by the Society for planting larches, and giving an account of the wood; and there is every prospect that the encouragement given by that Society will be the means of 7 we ao } any = ws ell ao 2 et ae LARCH. 17 enriching these kingdoms in a few years, by saving the large sums which are annually sent out of the country for pine timber. Amongst the earliest planters of larch we notice the Duke of Atholl, who, we are told by Dr. An- derson, planted 200,000 every year; and by an account which we have lately been favoured with, it appears that his Grace planted 1,102,367 in the winter of 1819 and the fol- lowing spring. ‘They were planted on 556 acres, or 548 Scotch acres, at 2;000 per Scotch acre, at the rate of about 30,440 daily, for thirty-six days, being one day’s labour for 1,054 men, or thirty men for the thirty-six days. The expence of planting was about five hun- dred and seventy pounds, or twelve shillings and sixpence per Scotch acre. ‘The present Duke of Atholl has had the satisfaction of seeing a frigate of thirty-six guns built en- tirely of larch timber of his own planting, which we believe is more than any other indi- vidual in the universe can boast of. It was launched from the stocks at Woolwich, about three years back, being named the Atholl. At the same time a frigate, named the Niemer, was built of Riga fir; and as they are both of the same size and form, and are destined to the same station, the government will have a fair trial of the comparative value of these VOL. I. c 18 SYLVA FLORIFERA. timbers. Too much praise cannot be bestowed on his Grace in surmounting the obstacles which were continually thrown in his way by contractors and other interested persons, who endeavoured to prevent this important expe- riment from being made. A brig, of 171 tons, called the Sarah, has also been built at Perth, of larch timber, from the forest of his Grace the Duke of Atholl. The Diana steam-boat, which plies between London and Richmond, is also composed of the same timber; it was built by Evans of Rotherhithe. The Duke has some beautiful cabinets formed of this wood, in his house in Great George-street, Westminster; and we have lately seen a table made from one of his Grace’s larches, which, in point of beauty and closeness of grain, is nearly equal to those formed from the root of the yew-tree. In 1787, and the following year, the Bishop of Llandaff planted 48,500 larches on the high grounds near Ambleside, in Westmoreland. John Sneyd, Esq., of Belmont, in Staffordshire, planted 13,000 larches between the years 1784 and 1786, and 11,000 more in 1795. W. Mellersh, Esq., of Blyth, planted 47,500. Joseph Cowlishaw, of Hodsock Park, Esq., planted 27,400. Richard Slater Milnes, Esq., of Foyston, near Ferrybridge, in Yorkshire, LARCH. 19 - planted 200,000, about four years old plants. In the same county, Mr. George Wright planted at Gildingwells 11,573. Thomas White, Esq., of West Retford, in Notting- hamshire, planted 13,000 about the year 1789. The late Earl of Fife planted 181,813 in the county of Moray, in Scotland. In 1791, the Rev. T. Dunham Whitaker, at Holme, in Claviger, in the county of Lancaster, planted 64,135 ; and in the same year Thomas Gait- skell, Esq., of Little Braithwait, in Cumber- land, planted 43,300, on fifteen acres of high land. The same spirit for planting the larch has continued down to the present time, and extended to all parts of the country where the land has not been thought more valuable for other purposes. In 1820, the London: Society for promoting Arts, &c., presented the gold medal to his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, for planting 1,981,065 forest trees, 980,128, of which were larch. The larch-tree is now found to ripen, its seed perfectly in England. The conés should be gathered about the end of November, and kept in a dry place till the spring ; when, if spread on a cloth, and exposed to, the sun, or laid before the fire, the scales will open and emit their seeds. These seeds should be sown on a border exposed to the east, where oe? 20 SYLVA FLORIFERA. the morning sun only comes on it, as the plants do not prosper so well where the sun lies much on them. The young plants may be pricked out into other beds in the autumn as soon as their leaves have fallen off, and the distance of six inches each way is the space recommended between them. In two years they will be ready to plant where they are in- tended to stand. When the young trees are planted out for good, they need not be more than eight or ten feet distant from each other; but they must be planted closer on exposed situations : and it is recommended not to dig the ground between young larches ; therefore the weeds should be drawn by the hand, or cut down by the hoe, whilst the plantation is young. » Plants which are intended for exposed situations should not be taken from warm sheltered beds, which naturally cause them to be more tender. It has been proved that those larches planted in the worst soil, and in bleak places, have thriven the best ; for where trees of equal size have been planted in good earth at the same time, the others on cold stiff land have in twelve years. been twice the height of those planted in good ground. The Bishop of Llandaff informs us, that from many experiments made by himself, and col- LARCH. 21 lected from others, he finds the annual in- crease in circumference of the larch, at six feet from the ground, to be one inch and a half, on an average of several years; and that this inference has been drawn from the actual admeasurement of larches in different parts of England and Scotland, and of different ages, from ten years old to fifty. Mr. Hart says, the larch grows slowly the first four years; but in twenty years it will exceed the fir-tree, both in height and circumference, that is double its age. Eight trees being measured in the spring and autumn of the year 1794, the average of their increase in height was nearly three feet nine inches and a quarter; and one of them increased three inches in circum- ference at two feet above the ground. In another plantation, the trees at eight years’ growth measured above twenty feet in height on an average: the trees were from six to nine inches high when planted. At twelve years old they measured, on an average, from thirty- four to thirty-six feet in height; and this in- crease is continued until the timber is nearly ready to be felled. In the Memoirs of the Royal Society of Agriculture at Paris for 1787, there is an ac- count of some birch-trees in some parts of c 3 29, SYLVA FLORIFERA. Dauphiné, and in the forest of Baye, in Pro- vence, which two men could not grasp. Of the qualities of the larch wood we have so. much to add to what we have already stated, that should any one read our account who has plantations of this timber, and 1s not yet acquainted with its valuable properties, he will naturally seem to increase in riches as he proceeds from line to line. Dr, Anderson says it is possessed of so many valuable qualities, that to enumerate the whole would appear extravagant hyper- bole. We have already noticed what the ancients have said of this timber’s resisting the flames ; in addition to which Mr. Hart observes, that there is perhaps no instance of the cottages in Carniola being set on fire, although their roofs are covered with boards of this wood, and they are so careless as to throw flaming firebrands on them. Matthiolus notices the incombustibility of this wood; but says, un- willing as it is to take fire, yet it is nowise difficult to burn it in kilns, glass-houses, and furnaces belonging to iron-works, when once ‘the inside of these receptacles is rendered intensely hot. Such is the practice in the iron-works of Stiria and the bishopric of LARCH. 23 Trent, where this wood is of singular use, when there is heat sufficiently fierce and strong to penetrate it forcibly. It is known that the larch timber will re- sist water in a still stronger degree than it is able to endure the fire, as when employed under water, it remains almost to eternity without rottmg. The piles of this timber on which the houses of Venice were built many hundred years ago, are still found as fresh as when first put in. Stakes of it have been tried in the decoys of Lincolnshire, which, between wind and water, have already worn out two or three sets of oak stakes, and do not yet discover any symptoms of decay. Dr. Pallas, in his survey of the Russian dominions in Asia, observed several tumuli in Kamtschatka, reared at a period so remote, that none of the present inhabitants had any tradition respecting their origin. The plat- form was covered by larch wood, over which the mound of earth was raised ; and the wood was found to be uncorrupted. It is said that planks of larch are superior to those of oak for many purposes in ship- building. At Archangel, ships of the line are built of this timber; and at Venice it is also employed in naval architecture, especi- ally in the lighter parts of the upper works, c.4 94 ‘SYLVA FLORIFERA. but not where massy pieces of timber are re- quired, on account of its weight. It resists the intemperature of the air more than any wood known in that-country, and therefore is much used for outer gates, poles, &c. In some of the old palaces at Venice there are beams of larch as sound as when placed. Mons. le President de la Tour d’ Aigues says, in 1787, “ Ihave in my castle of Tour d’ Aigues beams of twenty inches square, which are sound, though upwards of two hundred years old.” ‘We are assured that when used for hop- poles, one set of these would outlast two or three sets of ash; and as it will bear so great a weight, it is particularly adapted for the supporting the roofs in mines, &c. : There is not a branch or twig of the larch, says Dr. Anderson, that may not be put to some useful purpose. The larger branches may be employed in fencing, and the smaller brush for fillmg drains, and for fuel. In drains it is more durable than any other — wood; and though the timber will not rea- dily burn, yet the brush is found to make a fire almost equal to the billets of many other trees. The Italians use it for picture-frames, because no other wood gives gilding such force, brightness, and, as it were, a sort of LARCH. D5 natural burnish ; and this is said to be the grand secret why their gilding on wood is so much better than ours. On account of its bitter nature worms will _ not attack it, and it is not subject to warp like most other panels of wood; and, being ex- tremely solid, it admits of a fine polish or smooth firmness, and is therefore particularly adapted for artists to paint on, as it throws forth the colouring better than any other wood. It is the wood which the incompar- able Raphael chose to bear the strokes of his pencil, and his celebrated picture of the Trans- figuration was painted on panels of this tim- ber; and let us hope that we have British Raphaels growing up with our British larches, who will, by their enchanting art, show us that they can metamorphose this wood into beautiful figures, as easily as Ovid transform- ed the sisters of Phaeton into these trees. The artist not only finds his palette and panel in the larch, but this tree also bleeds freely to furnish him with turpentine and varnish for his paint, and lends its assistance also in furnishing a material for the frame. It is the larch which produces the turpen- tine known by the name of Venetian turpen- tine, which is obtained by making incisions in the trunk of the tree, at about three feet 26 SYLVA FLORIFERA. from the ground: narrow troughs of about twenty inches long are fixed in the incisions, to convey this liquid into receivers below. The principal season for collecting this resin- ous juice is from the end of May to Septem- ber. As our larch-trees become aged, we may fairly calculate on saving much money to the country by using turpentine extracted from our own woods. It is only after the tree has attained the thickness of ten or twelve inches in diameter, that it is thought worth while to collect the turpentine ; and from that time, during 40 or 50 years, if it continue in vigorous growth, the tree will continue to yield annually from seven to eight pounds of turpentine. Martyn calculates that an English acre will contain 682 trees, at the distance of eight feet from each other. Suppose the annual produce to be six pounds a tree, on an average, and the price to be no more than two-pence the pound, the value of the produce would be 3l. 4s. 2d. the acre. | 't was from old larch-trees that the ancients gathered the agarick, so celebrated by their medical writers ; but this fungous substance is now fallen into total disuse as a medicine in this country, though it is still used in northern countries as an emetic in intermitting fevers. LARCH. 27] The 'Tunguses use it to dye the hair of the rein-deer ; and the women, in some parts of Siberia, wash themselves, and even their linen with it, as it is found to be of a saponaceous quality. It is now calculated that the Highlands of Scotland will in the next age be able to furnish the whole commerce of the island with tim- ber for its shipping; and it is still to be re- gretted that so much barren land should be suffered to remain unplanted with this and other timber as we find in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Hampshire ; all of which being connected with some dock-yard, ought not to lie useless to the community when the soil could be so advantageously’ employed. Plantations that are formed exclusively of larch destroy the heath and all other vegeta- tion; but, after a few years, a fine grass springs up, that is so valuable for grazing, that it has been let from ten shillings to five pounds per acre for this purpose, which, previous to its being planted, would not bring as many pence. Sir John Hay, Bart., and the Duke of Atholl, have had extraordinary instances of this ad- vantage ; but it is observed, that when Scotch firs, or other trees, are mixed in the plant- ations, this benefit is not derived. 28. COMMON LAUREL.—PRUNUS LAURO-’ CERASUS. Natural order, Pomacee ; Rosacee, Juss. A genus of the Icosandria Monogynia class. ‘¢ In various hues; but chiefly thee, gay green ! Thou smiling nature’s universal robe ! United light and shade; where the sight dwells With growing strength, and ever new delight.” THomson’s Spring. Tus eastern evergreen, which exhibits its large glossy leaves in all our shrubberies, and contributes so considerably to the vernal ap- pearance of our winter walks, seems to have escaped the notice of the ancient Greek and Roman naturalists, although it is a native of the same latitude and longitude from whence Lucullus procured the cherry-tree, which was thought worthy to be placed in the most con- spicuous situation amongst the Armenian treasures which he exhibited in his triumphal entry into Rome. The common laurel came into Europe with the name of T'rebezon curmasi, which means the plum or date of Trebisond ; and as its LAUREL. 29 leaf something resembled the ancient /aurus or bay, it was supposed to be a species of that plant ; and as the fruit bears resemblance to our small black cherry, it was called the Bay cherry, and Laurocerasus, Laurel cherry. As it now seldom has any name added to that of laurel, many persons mistake this shrub for the laurel so celebrated of old for crowning both the victor and the poet; and this error is more frequent, from our having changed the name of the /aurus into bay. The common laurel was first made known to this part of the world by His Excellency David Ungnad, who, whilst ambassador from the Emperor of Germany at Constan- tinople, sent, in the year 1576, a collection of rare shrubs and trees to Clusius, the cele- brated botanist, at Vienna; but owing to the severity of the weather whilst on their journey, and the carelessness of those who brought them, they all perished, excepting the horse-chesnut and the laurel, and Clusius relates that the latter was almost dead when it arrived. He put it into a stove in the same state as it arrived, and in the same tub of earth. The following spring he took. it out, cut off the dead and withered branches, and set it ina shady place. In the autumn it began to shoot from the root; and he then 30 SYLVA FLORIFERA. removed the living part into another tub, and attended it with great care. As it advanced he laid down the branches which took root, and he distributed the plants amongst his friends and men of eminence. Thus the laurel became known throughout Europe. Clusius’s plant died without flowering ; but another which he gave to Aicholtz flowered in May 1583; and also another a few years afterwards with Joachim Camerarius at Nu- remberg. * Yih The laurel is not mentioned by Gerard in 1597, and we may therefore conclude that it was not then known in England. Parkinson ' says, in his “ Garden of Pleasant Flowers,” which was published in 1629, that it grew in the garden of Master James Cole at Highgate, where it had blossomed and ripened fruit, and that it was preserved by throwing a blan- ket over it every winter. Cole was a mer- chant in London, who appears to have be- stowed much pains and expense in collecting rare plants. Gerard calls him his “loving friend,’ on which account we conclude he had not recéived the laurel when he published his Herbal ; yet we find that Cole, as well as Gerard, was in friendly correspondence with * Clus. Hist, LAUREL. 31 Clusius, and we cannot well account for the lenoth of intervening time before they re- ceived plants of the laurel. Clusius died in April 1609 ; and, as Parkinson says, in 1629, Cole’s laurel had then “ flowered divers times, and borne ripe fruit also,” he must have re- ceived it early in the seventeenth century. Parkinson tells us, that he had procured the laurel from Master Cole, and that he had also received its seed from Italy, under the title of Laurus regia, the “ King’s bay ;” but it having no affinity with the bay, Bellonius named it Laurocerasus, “ and I should,” says Parkinson, “ have placed it in my orchard amongst the sorts of cherries ; but the beau- tifulnesse of the plant caused me rather to insert it here, in the Garden of Pleasant Flowers.” Evelyn says, that he was told by a noble personage, that the laurel was first brought to England by the Countess of Arundel, wife to Thomas Earl of Arundel and Surry, to whom this country is indebted for the Arundelian Marbles. In referring to the history of ‘this ancient family, we find that the Countess of Arundel set out for Italy in 1614, for the purpose of _ accompanying her two sons to England. It is, therefore, probable that this evergreen 32° SYLVA FLORIFERA. might have been introduced by her at that time, as it is noticed that wherever she passed she was treated with honours that had never been before paid to an English subject. © The laurel was become common in this country in 1664, as Evelyn observes, that “from the use we commonly put the lauro- cerasus, the cherry bay, to, it seems as if it had been only destined for hedges, and to cover bare walls.” ay, in 1688, relates, that it was then very common in English gardens and plantations ; that it flowered and fruited very well; was very patient of cold, and braved our winters even in an exposed si- tuation. ; | This evergreen grows naturally on the east- er borders of the Black Sea, particularly in the vicinity of Trebisond, as also on the Caucasian mountains, which extend from the Black to the Caspian Sea. It grows also on some mountains in Persia, and in Crimea. It seems to love a moist soil, and to thrive in our atmosphere much better than in most parts of the Continent. At the present time it is even rare in the gardens around Paris; and a very small plant of it at the tomb of Delille is all we observed at Pére la Chaise. It is the Cerasus lauro-cerasus of M. Jussieu, the celebrated botanist ; but it is commonly LAUREL, | 33 known in France by the name of Laurier- amandier, Almond-laurel, because the leaves give the flavour of bitter almonds: and it is also called Laurier-au-lait, Milk-laurel, from its being used to flavour milk. It was for- merly much used in this country to give a flavour to puddings and custards, &c.; but this practice is much less frequent since it has been ascertained to be a deadly poison. We should therefore caution all persons against its use, and particularly cooks ; for in case of accident, they would be tried for the murder of the sufferer as much as if they had used any other poisonous drug. Dr. Darwin says, « The distilled water from laurel leaves is, perhaps, the most sudden poison we are ac- quainted with in this country. I have seen about two spoonfuls of it destroy a large pointer dog in less than ten minutes. In a small dose it is said to promote intoxication. On this account there is reason to believe it acts in the same manner as opium and vinous spirit ; but that the dose is not so well ascer- tained.” As our shrubbery is meant to amuse, we forbear mentioning the dreadful conse- _ quences that have ensued from the baneful juice of this leaf; but we feel it a duty to caution those who may have been in the habit of using it, particularly as custards and pud- VOL. I. D 34 SYLVA. FLORIFERA. dings are generally eaten by children, whose constitutions may suffer through life from the injury done them by this mode of giving a relish to their diet. The laurel is rather a heavy than a grace- ful shrub, but the beauty of its green leaves will always ensure it a situation in. orna- mental plantations. The foliage is of the most agreeable yellow green, being brighter than that of either the orange or lemon; and as the greater number of evergreen plants are of a dark or bluish green, and many of them with a tint of reddish brown, nothing in point of colour can therefore be more desirable than the laurel to relieve the sameness which would otherwise too often predominate in our winter greens. The common laurel has flowers in April and May, and although small; their appearing in clusters has a good effect, particularly when the trees have acquired age, so as to produce their white petals in abund- ance. The laurel, when trained as a tree with one stem, has a very superior appearance to. the common bush, particularly when it can be carried to a considerable height. before it branches out; and to obtain this effect more speedily, it is recommended to graft the laurel on a common cherry stock, or upon 2 eee eee LAUREL. 35 that of the Cornish cherry, which it generally unites better with than the former. The laurel should not advance too near the foreground in the shrubbery, but the plants should be sufficiently numerous to give a cheerful contrast in the winter months, and it is well adapted to shut out the appearance of disagreeable objects. It forms the most beautiful foreground to large plantations, when planted by the hand of taste; but we condemn the mode of bor- dering clumps and groups with it, which give the idea of a frame to the landscape. — It should sometimes intermix with, and some- times advance from the plantation, so as to avoid the idea of a fence; the grouping must also depend on the formation of the ground, and the situations where we wish to give light or shade. — Where holly abounds naturally, or is cul- tivated, a mixture of laurel gives great relief; and as it is a shrub of such easy propagation, it ought to be found in considerable abun- dance in all woodland scenes. At Woburn Abbey, the seat of his Grace the Duke of Bedford, there is a hill covered entirely with laurels, which are grown to a considerable size; and in the plantations of the p 2 36 SYLVA. FLORIFERA. Earl of Chichester at Stanmore,near Brighton, we have seen a hedge of laurel about 220 yards in length, where they have grown to the height of thirty feet, and some of the wrigoiial trunks measure three feet in cir- cumference, at about two feet and a half from the ground. These trees have been planted about fifty years, and have never been injured by the frost. The laurel approaches so near in appear- ance to the orange tree, that when planted in the shrubbery as a screen for defending the citrus tribe, and a few standard laurels inter- spersed, a very inconsiderable number of these tender trees may be made to give the effect of a plantation of orange trees, at the season when they can be removed from ve orangery, or the conservatory. It will generally be found that the laurels raised from seed produce the finest plants, particularly for standards, as those obtained from cuttings or layers incline more to a ho- rizontal growth, and produce a greater num- ber of lateral branches, but which are also desirable for some situations in the shrubbery. The berries are seldom perfectly ripe before October, when they should ‘be immediately sown in a dry soil, at about two inches deep, LAUREL, 37 and the bed should be guarded from frost by any light litter, such as pease, haulm, &c: being thrown over it. The young plants will appear in the spring, and may be transplanted in the following autumn. Cuttings should be planted as soon as. the ground hia been moistened by the autumnal rains, which generally happens in the month of September. The cuttings must be the same year’s shoots, with a small part of the former year’s wood at the bottom ; a soft loamy soil is recommended, and they should be planted about six inches deep, and the earth should be pressed tight to the plants. The common laurel is not without advo- cates for its medicinal properties; but on ac- count of its known poisonous quality, we strongly decry the use of it, excepting by the advice of those whose time has been devoted to the study of medicine; and with them it is well known that the most beneficial effects are often produced by means of plants which would prove the most baneful in the hands of the ignorant. lLinnzus informs us, that this plant is commonly and successfully used in Switzerland for pulmonary complaints. Lan- grish mentions its efficacy in agues. Baylies found that, it possessed a remarkable D3 38 SYLVA FLORIFERA. power of diluting the blood; and from expe- rience recommended it in all cases of disease supposed to proceed from too dense a state of that fluid, adducing particular instances of its efficacy in rheumatism, asthma, and schir- rous affections. | 39 LAURESTINE; or, LAURUSTINUS. — VIBURNUM TINUS. Natural order, Dumose ; Caprifolia, Juss. A genus of the Pentandria Trigynia class. ‘* Now, all amid the rigours of the year, In the wild depth of winter, while without The ceaseless winds blow ire” Fora garnishes the cymes of the laures- tine with hardy and modest flowers, which seem to say, “ll tarry with you till your friends return, and cheer the scene with my pale pink buds and pure white petals,” with which it ornaments the shrubbery from November’s dreary month to the time that Boreas lends to March his strongest breath. We know not how this pretty winter flower stands in the Oral language of the Turks, but we find it emblematical of those British fair who desert the brighter scenes of society to cheer the sorrowing day of the lone widow, or cause the bereft parent to mourn his lost hope with less anguish. We will welcome Dp 4 40 SYLVA FLORIFERA. thee, therefore, little laurus, in the shrubbery, | even when the queen of flowers displays her blushing and odorous petals to the sun; be- cause we know thou wilt come with all thy charms to make our winter walks more gay: and much it must be regretted, that thy mild charms could not detain the great. Napoleon to thy native Eliba; then many a widow- hood would have been prevented, and the name of Waterloo happily never known to the fatherless child of many a sorrowing mother. The laurestine grows naturally also in many parts of the south of Europe, Spain, Portugal, and it is likewise found wild in Barbary. Old authors give it the name of Laurustinus, from a supposition that it was a smaller species of the bay, laurus ; they therefore added the word Tuvos,or Tuvves, tine, or tiny, small. The Greeks called it Aagyy eypiz. Cato names it Laurus sylvatica ; but Pliny says it was thought not to be a laurel in his time. We are not able to state the exact time when it was first introduced to this country, but Gerard says, in 1596, that it then grew and prospered very well in his garden at Hol- born. He calls it the “ Wilde baie tree,” and * Laurus tinus.”’ The Italians call it. Lauro salvatico, the LAURESTINE. 4] Spaniards and Portuguese Una de perro, Fol- lado, and Durillo, the French Laurier sauvage, the Dutch Laurus boom, and the Germans, Lorbeerbaum. - We have several varieties of this winter- flowering shrub, all of which are desirable in the shrubbery, as the branches are sent out close to the earth, and take off the naked ap- pearance which. would be otherwise con- spicuous in the winter months. Where it is desirable to form clumps of evergreens, on lawns, this is a desirable plant, as it com- pletely obscures the bare trunks of taller growing plants, and blossoms so abundantly when all other shrubs have done flowering. It mixes well with the common laurel, as its leaves are of so different a tint. It has been frequently noticed, that those trees which are raised from seed are hardier than others that are propagated by layers; but where it is intended to cover the ground beneath tall trees, we should recommend the plants raised by layers, as they will run on the earth in such situations like the ivy, and take root as they run. We found this shrub propagating itself in this way to a consider- able extent in a plantation near Ryde, in the Isle of Wight, and we have often noticed its fondness for the sea air. 42 SYLVA FLORIFERA. The autumn is the best time for laying down the branches, which will be well-rooted, and ready to transplant by the following autumn. . Although the blossoms are the most hardy of any plant we introduce into the shrubbery, yet the laurestine is often injured by the severity of the weather, particularly when it is trained up with a naked stem; for as the sap must naturally rise when the tree is in the active state of forming its flowers and seed, it is naturally more susceptible of the frost, and those shrubs of this kind, which have their principal stem protected by branches and leaves, suffer less; and even: when the great severity of the winter has killed the branches, we often find vigorous shoots sent forth from the stem when the old wood has been removed. The berries of the laurestine arevery hot, and inflame the fauces violently ; yet we find the starlings frequent this shrub, and devour the berries with as much avidity as the black- bird and thrush do those of the mezereon, which are of a similar nature. 45 LILAC. — SYRINGA. Natural order, Sepiarie ; Jasminee, Juss. A genus of the Diandria Monogynia class. «The lilac, various in array, now white, Now sanguine, and her beauteous head now set With purple spikes pyramidal, as if Studious of ornament, yet unresolved Which hue she most approved, she chose them all.” Cowper. Tue delightful sensation which the lovely tints of this elegant, flower, and its fragrance, produce on us in the month of May, has been compared to the first emotions of love, for nature seems to have ordained that mortals should not be permitted to see the one. or feel the other with indifference ; for who can behold the flexible and modest, yet dignified clusters of this charming flower, whose colours vary at every movement, and so sweetly de- scend from the finest violet down to the silvery white, without regretting the short duration of so divine a gift. Perhaps we have no flower that gives, or an imagination strong enough to conceive, 44 SYLVA FLORIFERA. greater harmony than is afforded in the happy gradation of colour from the purple bud to the almost colourless flower of these charming groups, around which the light plays and dis- solves itself into a thousand shades, which all blending in the same tint, form that incom- parable combination that rivets the attention , of the most indifferent observer, and throws the painter into despair. We are told Spaen- donk himself dropped his pencil before a bunch of lilac; for Flora seems to have de- signed the thyrsi of the lilac to please the artist by their delicacy, and to tantalize him by their varying tints. The harmony of colours is so complete in the lilac, that when we place a bunch of the white flowers on a branch of the purple va- riety, an offensive harshness is instantly ob- served; nor will the more delicate greet of the first kind assimilate with the purple tyrus of the latter, without displeasing the eye. In the Floral language of the East, where this flowering shrub is a native, and Were spontaneously _—. © the lilac hangs to view Its bursting gems in clusters blue,” they have made it an emblem of the forsaken, because it is the flower that lovers offer their 10 LILAC. 45 mistresses when they quit them ; but in this climate, where the charm of the fair is as powerful as this flower is agreeable, the swain is kept in constant fear of receiving the lilac. _ However ungallant the Persian beaux may be in giving the lilac, they are not deficient In complimenting the fair in their language, as their expression for a fine woman and a beautiful flower is the same. Lilac, or lilag, is a Persian word, which simply signifies a flower, but which Europe has given to the shrub it has taken from the ancient Elamites; and from the flower we have given name to one of our most delicate compound colours. That a plant of the tropical climes should be so hardy as to stand the severest winters of the greater part of Europe is admirable in the lilac. Its easy propagation, and speedy growth,are no less conspicuous than its beauty, and which have contributed to its rapid dis- tribution throughout not only the temperate but even some of the colder parts of Europe ; for it has naturalized itself in Scotland and in the mountains of Switzerland, and it is now found in the forests of Germany, although it was unknown in this quarter of the globe be- fore the year 1562, when Angerius de Busbeke obtained it from the East, and transported it from Constantinople to Vienna, whence he 46 SYLVA FLORIFERA. had been sent ambassador from the Emperor Ferdinand I. to the Sultan Soliman. The generic name of this plant, Syringa, is derived from the Greek Luew¥, a pipe, because when the pith is taken from the wood it formed pipes like those which Pan made of the reeds into which the nymph Syrinx was transformed. “© ¢ Thou,’ he said, ‘ Who canst not be the partner of my bed, At least shall be the consort of my mind, And often, often to my lips be join’d.’ He form’d the reeds, proportion’d as they ar e, Unequal in their length, and wax’d with care, t They still retain the name of his ungrateful fair.” Ovip. Hence as syrinx and syringa meant a pipe, the lilac was called the Pipe-tree when first known in England; and under that name Parkinson writes of it in 1640, and Roy in 1665. Although Gerard says, in 1597, “ ‘The later phisitions do name the blew pipe-tree Lal- lach, or Lilac, and some Syringa.” This author — tells us, that the lilacs were then growing in his garden in very great plenty, where they flowered in April and May: and he adds, “ but as yet they haue not borne any fruite in my garden, though in Italie and Spaine their fruite is ripe in September ;” from which we learn it was then common in Europe ; but we LILAC. 47 have no means of ascertaining by whom and in what year it was introduced into England. However, as it reached Germany in the second year of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, it is probable that plants were soon afterwards sent to her gardener ; as we find by the survey of the royal gardens of Nonsuch, in Surrey, which were planted in the time of Henry the Eighth, and were one of the favourite residences of Elizabeth, that in the privy-gardens of that palace there were fountains and basins of marble, one of which was “ set round with six lilac trees, which bear no fruit, but only a very pleasant smell.” This survey was made in the time of Charles the Second, who gave the palace and gardens of Nonsuch to one of his mistresses, who pulled it down and sold the materials. Gerard considered the lilac to be a species of privet: later writers took it for a kind of jasmine; and M. Jussieu, in his Natural Classification of Plants, also makes it one of the jasmine family. In the shrubbery the lilac is amongst the first that announce the return of spring; and no flowering tree makes known the welcome tid- ings in a more pleasing garb, for the beauty of its foliage, and particularly that of the white variety, is scarcely less agreeable than its 48 SYLVA FLORIFERA. girandoles of flowers, that shed their perfume so delightfully over our May-day walks. - The praise which Eudosia bestowed on the swan, we may safely borrow for the white lilac, as it is equally an *¢ Emblem of modest grace, Of unaffected dignity and ease, Of pure and elegant simplicity.” Many persons complain of the lilac for shedding its flowers so'early, without taking into consideration at what an acceptable period the blossoms appear, and that it lends its beauties, with those of the laburnum, to fill up the space between the flowering of the almond and the arrival of the rose, which leaves us nothing to regret. The most beautiful variety of the common purple lilac is that known by the title of the © Scotch lilac, from its having been first men- tioned in the catalogue of the Edinburgh garden. The flowers of this kind are of a much richer colour than those of the blue lilac, the buds and under side of the petals being of a hue between purple and carmine, that gives a kind of ripeness to the appearance of the clusters, which are produced in larger groups, and with larger flowers also, than any other lilac. This kind likewise gives out its blossoms about fourteen days later than the LILAC. 49 common lilac, which lengthens the season of these flowers very considerably. The Scotch lilac is succeeded by the Persian lilac, which continues in blossom until the end of June, thus decorating our plantations from eight to ten weeks with the most agreeable attire. During the last year we enjoyed the forced lilacs from the beginning of February until those of the open garden appeared, which pleasure was lengthened by our meeting with them in full perfection at Paris in the months of August and September, where Le lilas qui pend, avec grace, Offre ses bouquets ingénus, at a season we have not yet met with them in this country, although we have equal means with the French of retarding the time of their flowering. The art of retarding the ripening of fruits, and the flowering of plants, is scarcely less desirable than that of forcing them. We have, therefore, dwelt on it at considerable length in the third edition of the Pomarium Britan- nicum, for by this means we join, as it were, the two ends of the year. The common lilac grows to the height of eighteen or twenty feet, when planted in a rich light soil; therefore it should hold a VOL. I. E 50 SYLVA FLORIFERA. middle rank in the plantation. And we have already noticed how charmingly it contrasts with the laburnum and the Guelder rose; the purple variety being placed with the snow ball, and the white lilac advancing its pale leaves before the cypress, the bay tree, or other dark evergreens ; whilst the blue Per- sian lilac may spread its more humble, but not less. graceful branches, in the foreground of its white relative. The Persian lilac seldom - exceeds five or six feet in height in the most favourable situations ; therefore it should only be placed in front of the shrubbery clumps or plantations. It often spreads to a consider- able extent, and covers its whole mass with its loose branches of delicate flowers, which are of a more agreeable, though less powerful odour, than those of the common lilac. We have seen large bushes of the common privet- leaved lilac growing on lawns, bending their slender branches to the turf every way, and forming a mount of blossoms, arising from the green sward, that could leave the most volup- tuous florist nothing to wish. Of the Persian lilacs, the variety with cut or pinnatified leaves was the first introduced, which Parkin- son tells us, in 1640, was then growing in the garden of Master Tradescant, at South Lam- beth. It is noticed also by Parkinson, in his 21 LILAC. 5] «* Garden of Pleasant Flowers,” of 1629, but he there states that it was a stranger to Eng- land, and that he described it from foreign accounts, with a hope that some one might be induced to bring it to this country. It is therefore clear that its first introduction was between these two dates. It was formerly called the Persian jasmine by our nurserymen, although it was first introduced into Europe with the Persian name of Agem. It is gene- _ rally supposed that the white Persian lilac is only an accidental variety, either raised from seed, or produced from suckers of the blue sort. 7 The Chinese lilac was first brought to this country in 1795. It is of a middle stature, between the Persian and the common lilac, and its leaves smaller than the common kind, with branches that are generally better fur- nished with blossoms, and that are both larger and deeper coloured than those of the Persian lilac. The lilac should never have its branches shortened, as the flowers are always produced at the ends of the shoots of the former year, and just below the girandole of flowers other shoots come out to succeed them, and contri- bute much to the beauty of the flower. The part on which the flower stands, decays down ~ &) KZ 52 SYLVA FLORIFERA. to the young shoots every winter. Thus na- ture prunes the lilac, but the trees of the com- mon lilac are greatly improved, by attention in keeping the stem free from suckers, as it will always be observed, that those plants which are so trained, produce the finest and most abundant flowers, and on this account, the plants that are raised from seeds are much to be preferred, as they are not so apt to abound in suckers. If the seeds be sown as soon as ripe, they come up the following spring, and generally flower the third or fourth — year from seed, which is earlier than those that are taken from suckers, As the Persian lilac seldom ripens its seed with us, it is usually propagated by suckers, but it is more desirable to multiply the tree by laying down the young branches, which in one year will be sufficiently rooted to transplant. We cannot close our account of the lilac without observing that it is amongst those trees that retain their verdure the longest; and as it cannot be too familiar with us, it is to be hoped that we shall see it creep into our hedge rows, and sometimes border our woodland scenes. 53 LIME, or LINDEN TREE.—TILIA. Natural order, Columnifere. Tiliacee, Juss. A genus of the Polyandria Monogynia class. “¢ And the lime at dewy eve Diffusing odours.” CowPer. Fasuion reigns over the toilet not with more arbitrary power than she governs the plantation. She even enters the forest, declar- ing war against and levelling to the earth all such as are not in favour with her court ; and as Caprice generally holds the situation of prime minister to this tyrannical goddess, it is not surprising that Folly should so often be em- ployed as first marshal. Reason, who is deemed a traitor by this government, finds his opposition too weak to oppose such a phalanx, and sees the lofty tree and the lowly shrub alike rooted from our native woods, their antiquity and utility no more availing themselves, than their beauty or singula- rity influences the whimsical disposition of Fashion, who is thought to be a spurious daughter of Taste. In vain did the lime fill ES 54 SYLVA FLORIFERA. the sighing breezes with delightful odours, — in vain were its agreeable shade and pretty um- bels offered as a ransom to appease Fashion, offended by the litter of its .early falling foliage ; her influence was too great, and the lime bowed its noble head to the axe of Folly, leaving its thinly scattered offspring to the protection of Obscurity, until Reason return to resume his administration. Monsieur Louis Liger remarks, in 1703, that the lime, or linden-tree, was then gone out of fashion in the French plantations, being supplanted in favour by the hornbeam and the elm. But our celebrated nurserymen, London and Wise, tell us, in 1706, that it was then more in use in England than any other tree “ for stand- ards and espaliers, having found the inconve- nience of planting elms near the fruit trees, or good plants ; because the roots of the elm impoverish all the ground where they grow.” This tree is the ®iAupa (philyra) of the Greek writers, and the Tilia of the Latin authors. It is thought that the Greeks named it PAi- lyra, because the inner bark formed thin sheets on which they anciently wrote, instead of parchment or paper. The Latin name is supposed to be derived from 7idov, which signifies a feather, because the flowers of this tree are produced from a kind of tongue, LIME. 55 called the bractes, which very much resembles a feather. The Italians follow the Latin name Tilia, from which also the Spanish 7'eia, and the French Tilleul, seem derived. The English title seems to be a corruption of the Dutch Linde or Lindenboom, or the Ger- man Linden or Lindenbaum, as all our early writers call it Line, or Linden-tree; and as we have now one species of the citrus-tree called Lime, it would be desirable to resume the ancient name of this tree, and call it Lin- den, to avoid confusing the two. The linden is a native of Europe, and, ac- cording to Thunberg, of Japan also. Mr. Aiton makes it a native of this country ; but it is hardly to be supposed that the able com- piler of the Hortus Kewensis could possibly follow back the register of each individual plant with the scrutiny of a poursuivant at arms. We find no English name for this tree but what is evidently borrowed from the Ger- mans, and our earliest writers mention it as a rare tree. Dr. Turner tells us, in 1568, “ it groweth very plenteously in Essekes, in a _parke within two mile from Colichester, in the possession of one Master Bogges ; it is also very common in high Germany.” Ge- rard observes, in 1597, “ that the female lin- E 4 56 SYLVA FLORIFERA. den-tree groweth in some woods in North- amptonshire ; also neere Colchester, and in many places along the highway leading from London to Heningham in the county of Essex. The male linden-tree groweth in my Lord Treasurer’s garden in the Strand, and in sundry other places, as at Barnelmes, and in a garden at Sainte Katharine’s, neere London.” Parkinson says, in 1640, “ the female lin- den-tree is planted in many places in our land, chiefly for the large sweet shadow it maketh ; the others are very great strangers in this land, scarce to be seen any where.” Evelyn complains, and says, “ it is a shame- ful negligence that we are not better pro- vided of nurseries of a tree so choice and universally acceptable.” He tells us, that “the young trees were then sent for from Flanders and Holland, to our great cost, al- though they were to be found in some of our woods.” | Excepting the torrid zone there is no part of the globe whose timber-trees do not thrive in this country as well as in their native soil. The famous linden-tree of the duchy of Wir- temberg, which gave to the city of Neustatdthe name of Neustatd-Ander grossen Linden (the City of the great Linden), although it was of LIME, 57 prodigious height and nine feet in diameter, is not to be compared to one in this country, which grew at Depenam, in Norfolk, ten miles from Norwich, which measured near the ground forty-eight feet in circumference, or sixteen feet diameter; and at some dis- tance higher it girthed thirty-six feet, and in the least part of the trunk it measured twen- ty-five and a half feet, and was to the upper- most branch, ninety feet in height. (The measurement of this tree was sent to Evelyn by Sir Thomas Brown of Norwich.) ‘Switzerland is celebrated by Evelyn for its enormous linden-trees, many of which remain sacred to this day. He particularises the fa- mous linden at Zurich; as also one at Scha- louse, under which was a bower composed of its branches, capable of containing 300 persons sitting at ease, and so thick was the foliage that the sun never penetrated. There is a prodigious linden now standing in the village of Prelly, in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, under whose shade the rural entertainments of these amiable and interest- ing people are held. Lach village of this canton is governed by twelve men, who are chosen to maintain the observance of the laws ; and it was beneath the extending branches of this celebrated tree that the mu- 58 SYLVA FLORIFERA. -nicipality of Prelly formerly held their com- mon council, seating themselves on the roots which have elevated themselves above the earth, as it were to form a natural bench for the justice of these simple people. This linden- tree is visited by all who make the tour of Switzerland, and many a traveller exclaims with Langhorne: © let me still with simple nature live, My lowly field flowers on her altar lay, ° Enjoy the blessings that she meant to give, And calmly waste my inoffensive day !” We have already noticed that the linden was one of the papyraceous trees of the an- _ «cients. Munting affirms he saw a book made of the inner bark of this tree, which had been written about a thousand years; and there is a similar one in the library at Vienna, which contains a work of Cicero, De Ordi- nanda Republica, et de inveniendis Orationum exordis. It was formerly amongst the varie- ties of Cardinal Mazarine, and which the Count of St. Amant, then governor of Arras, 1662, procured for the Emperor at the price of eight thousand ducats, which, if silver ducats, would amount to 1800/., and if gold, 3800/. Pliny tells us, that in ancient times fillets or ribands for chaplets were also made of LIME. 59 the inner bark of the linden, and which it was esteemed a great honour to wear. The Ro- mans also made cords and ropes from the thready substance which is found between the wood and the inner bark of this tree. The Roman cooks sliced the inner bark of the linden to boil with meats that were over salted, as it was found to make them per- fectly fresh. Of the ancient use of the timber of this tree, we learn from Virgil, who says: ‘¢ Of beech the plough-tail, and the bending yoke, . oF softer linden, harden’d in the smoke.” Geor. i. It is fabri the wood of the linden-tree prin- cipally, that the incomparable carvings of Gibbons were formed, which for lightness and elegance of design have never been equalled in modern times, and perhaps not surpassed by the chisels of the ancients, as those beau- tiful festoons of fruits and flowers in His Majesty’ s castle at Windsor, and those which ornament one of the noble apartments of the Earl of Egremont’s mansion at Petworth, will evince, as well as those which decorate the choir of St. Paul’s and other churches, and noble residences both in London and in the country. — | Architects make their models of this wood, 60 SYLVA FLORIFERA. and the carvers prefer it on account of its delicate colour, close grain, easy working, and for its not being liable to split. That it is not subject to worms must be satisfactorily proved by the preservation in which we now see the works of Gibbons, that have been exposed since the time of Charles the Se- cond, It is also remarked by Pliny, that the worm never injured this timber. Evelyn tells us, that this wood is preferable to the willow, being stronger yet lighter. We presume that it was from the strong recommendation of this tree in the Sylva, that it came so much into use in the latter time of that author, as about that time it was planted in St. James’s Park; and we find it was also frequently planted in country towns, and trimmed up to screen the windows from the sun; for which purpose it was well adapted, both on account of the fragrance of its flowers and its shade, which is not required after the time the linden throws off its leaves; and few trees were found to bear clipping better than this, as it soon heals the wounds that are caused by the knife; and the branches are so tough that they seldom suffer by the wind, and were found to bear so great a weight that plat- forms were laid on them, and arbours made in the tree one over the other. Dr. Turner 20 LIME. 61 says he had seen one in Germany with a table on it, around which ten men could sit. Parkinson also notices one which he had seen at Cobham in Kent, that formed three arbours over each other, “ which was a goodly spectacle.” The leaves of this tree begin to open about the middle of April, and are generally fully expanded by the 20th of that month. The flowers begin to open by the middle of May, but are not in their full beauty before the middle of July. They are in some degree similar to those of hawthorn, but neither so white nor quite so large, and the flower-stalk is attached to a whitish tongue-shaped leaf: Their fragrance is agreeable to most people, and very attractive to the industrious swarm, for “‘ the bee Sits on the bloom, extracting liquid sweet Deliciously.” But it is observed that no animal will eat the fruit or seed of the linden-tree; Columella recommends the leaves as a good fodder for cattle. A coarse cloth was formerly made of the inner thready bark, but it was more generally used for cordage, because it has the property 62 SYLVA FLORIFERA. of remaining in the water without rotting. The Greeks made bottles of the middle bark of the linden, which were lined with pitch to prevent leakage. _ It is said that no wood chars better than this for the purpose of gunpowder. It is also turned into bowls and dishes, and little pill- boxes were made of it before those of paper — were invented. | The flowers were formerly held in esteem by the apothecaries, being accounted cephalic and nervine, and good for the apoplexy, epi- lepsy, and palpitation of the heart, &c. They were sometimes added to the spirits of la- vender, and they formed the aqua florum tilie of the last age. The berries, reduced to powder, were used in dysenteries, and the bleeding at the nose. Hoffman speaks in high terms of the infusion of the flowers in water after the manner of tea, by which he says he has known an inveterate epilepsy perfectly cured. Notwithstanding the rules of fashion, we shall always be glad to meet the linden-tree in our summer walks or rides, whether it spring from the hedge-row, the enclosed park, the open street, or form the boundary of the shrubbery, where we hope the sight of it will LIME. 63 remind the young orator of the eloquence of him whose works, we have already noticed, are preserved on its bark. In humbler situations we would have this tree give the artist emulation to excel the hitherto unsurpassed Gibbons. _ So great was the honour thought of plant- ing a linden-tree on the continent, during the confederacy, that as soon as one party had made themselves masters of a village, they planted a linden in the public place, destroy- ing those which their adversaries had set, and which was again hewed and another planted as often as victory decided in favour of a fresh party. The finest linden-trees are those that are raised from seed, which should be sown in the autumn, as soon as they are ripe, and covered with mould about three quarters of an inch deep. They are also propagated by layers, which in one year will make a good root: these should be laid down and trans- planted about Michaelmas. The linden is also increased by cuttings; but the tree sel- dom forms so fine a cone-like shape when propagated by either of the latter methods, as when raised from seed. 64 MAGNOLIA. — MAGNOLIA. Natural order, Coadunate. Magnolie, Juss. A genus of the Polyandria Polygynia class. *¢ Columbus shew’d The western world to man.” Ir we except the general deluge and the origin of Christianity, the discovery of Ame- rica may be considered the most important event that has been recorded since the cre- ation of the world. It has discovered to us an immense territory of land ; a people whose habits and minds were new to us; it ex- hibited unknown animals, and afforded us vegetables no less novel than numerous. It has had the effect of a new creation; new wants have arisen, and new inventions have sprung up to gratify them. «© Then commerce brought into the public walk The busy merchant ; the big warehouse built ; Raised the strong crane; choak’d up the loaded street With foreign plenty; and thy stream, O Thames ! Large, gentle, deep, majestic, king of floods ! Chose for his grand resort.” THOMSON MAGNOLIA. 65 - The shrubs of the new world have been transplanted into our gardens, and the forest trees of America rear their heads in our woods; whilst, in return, we haveplanted colonies on the newly-discovered shores, who have reared their national constitution and laws with such care, that it may probably be found thriving there in its purity when time and corruption shall have destroyed the parent trunk. The magnolia grandiflora, or laurel-leaved magnolia, is a native of that part of America which has been named Florida, from the beautiful plants with which it abounds ; and when growing in its native soil, the magnolia is esteemed the most beautiful tree known ; it reaches from 90 to 100 feet in height, .and is clothed with an evergreen leaf of the most lucid colour on the upper surface, and of a russet tint beneath. The shape is nearly that of the common laurel leaf, but much larger ; and. being agreeably waved on the edge, it has not the heavy and stiff appearance of the laurel leaf, although the consistency is the same. It is sessile, and placed without order on every side of the branches. The flowers appear from June to September, during which time they perfume the air for a considerable distance round with the most agreeable ‘odour, which at one moment reminds us of VOL. II. F 66 SYLVA FLORIFERA. the jasmine or lily of the valley, and the next, of the violet mixed with the apricot. During the last summer we saw a fine tree of this description in the exotic gardens of M. Bourseau, Rue Mont Blanc, in Paris, which scented the whole of that elegant plantation. We have also seen a most noble magnolia in the vrounds of the Priory, near Ryde, in the Isle of Wight ; and which, we were then told, often wafted its delightful fragrance to more than half a mile in distance. The flowers are produced at the ends of the branches, and are so large as to measure from seven to eight inches in diameter, and are composed of eight or ten petals, narrow at their base, but broad, rounded, and a little waved. They spread open like a tulip, and have the appearance of white kid leather more than of a vegetable substance. In its native country this tree begins to flower in May, and gives out a succession during the whole summer, so that the woods are con- stantly perfumed with its odour. The pencil can give but a faint idea of the splendour of this beautiful tree, which defies the pen alto- gether to describe its charms; its leaves are more glossy than those of the laurel, and from nine to ten inches in length, and about three inches in breadth, with a softness on the under- side, that gives great variety to the foliage. | : MAGNOLIA. 67 The young branches are of a fine purplish brown, and when each spray, for a hundred feet in height, is holding up its petaled vase, as if to offer incense to the sun that nourishes its fruit, a mass of beauty is composed, that rivals the proudest work of man. The fruit of the magnolia is seated in the flower in a manner similar to the strawberry, which afterwards becomes a strobile or cone, composed of many capsules, each of which, when perfect, contains two scarlet seeds. We are not aware that the fruit has ever matured its seed in this country, though we have seen some old plants that have formed strobiles of considerable size. This splendid plant received the title of magnolia from Plumier, who so named it in honour of Pierre Magnol, prefect of the botanic garden at Montpelier, and author of several works on plants. Sir John Colliton is thought to have reared the first plant of this kind in England, at Exmouth, in Devonshire, some time prior to 1737. It was unknown to Mr. Miller, in 1724, when he published the first edition of his Gardener’s and Florist’s Dictionary ; but in a later edition, he mentions that there were a great many plants in England before the year 1739, but the severe winter of that year destroyed most of the young ones. He also F 2 68 SYLVA FLORIFERA. tells us, that he had a pretty large plant which was apparently killed by the severe winter of 1739-40, but that he cut it down after Midsummer, and that it shot up again the year following. We notice this circumstance more particularly, because in case of similar accidents, gardeners may not be too hasty in erubbing up the roots. The magnolia is gene- rally injured most. by the early frost, as the ex- tremities of the young shoots are then tender. His Grace the Duke of Richmond has two of the finest standard magnolia grandiflora trees in this country, at his seat at Goodwood in Sussex, one of which at six inches from the ground, girths three feet one inch, and .at four feet from the ground, two feet five inches ; at about five feet from the earth it divides into branches, forming a very beautiful head | about twenty-three feet in height. The other is thirty-five feet in height, and measures four feet'in circumference at fourteen inches fromthe ground: these trees flower abundantly ‘every year. The time of their having been planted cannot be now correctly ascertained. The magnolia should occupy a situation shel- tered from the north and north-east winds, but fully exposed to the south or south-west sun. It seems tothrive in the sea air, when the situation is not exposed ; and the soil congenial to this tree is a deep rich loam, rather dry than moist. Ceti MAGNOLIA. 69 From the great rarity and extreme beauty ‘of this tree, we think it deserving of more ‘care than is generally bestowed .on it, so as to secure it from the frost, and which might easily be déne by placing blocks of wood in the earth, with mortices in them, into which poles might be fixed, and a frame or wire- work thrown over, to lay mats or other cover- ing on during the inclement nights. Tall evergreens, of the darkest foliage, form the most proper back ground for this tree. ‘Our nurserymen raise these trees from seeds, which are sown in pots, and plunged into old hotbeds of tanners’ bark. They are seldom strong enough to be planted in the open ground under six years; therefore gar- deners are justly entitledtoa considerable price for a plant that has required so much of their attention in its propagation. The magnolia may also beraised from layers and cuttings; but these seldom make handsome standard trees. -We have now eighteen species of this plant, nine of which.are natives of North America, and nine belong to India, China, or Japan ; and should we be. able to naturalize them so as to endure our winters in the open air, as the common tulip tree has been made to do, they cannot fail of being regarded as one of the greatest ornaments of the shrubbery. The swamp magnolia, glauca, was the spe~ FS 70 SYLVA FLORIFERA. cies of this plant first cultivated in England, as it is mentioned by Ray, in 1688, as being amongst the rare exotic trees and shrubs then growing in the episcopal garden at Fulham, where it was sent by Banister’ to Bishop Comptom. This shrub seldom exceeds six- teen feet in height in its native soil; it is — found in low, moist, or swampy ground in North America, but not more northerly than Pennsylvania. The perfume of this plant resembles that of the lily of the valley, with a mixture of aromatic odour; and its fragrance is so great, that the trees may be discovered at the distance of three quarters of a mile by the scent of the blossoms, particularly towards the close of day, when it is, we are told, be- yond description pleasant to travel in the woods at the season of their flowering. The tree is known in America by the name of White Laurel, Swamp Sassafras; but it is more generally called the Beaver-tree, because the root is eaten as the most favourite food of the beaver, and it is therefore employed to catch these animals. The flowers of this species of magnolia are similar to those of the grandiflora. They consist of eight petals, but are not more than three or four inches over, The bark of the swamp magnolia, as well as the fruit and the young wood, form one of the American domestic medicines. 71 MAPLE TREE -— ACER. Natural order, Trihilate. Acera, Juss. A genus of the Polygamia Monecia class. ** Nor less attractive is the woodland scene, Diversified with trees of every growth.” Ir is in our hedgerows principally that we find the common maple, as it is seldom, if ever, allowed the honour of adding its shade amongst the number of those that compose the British shrubbery ; although, according to Chaucer, it formed the coma of the fair Ro- samond de Clifford ; and Virgil celebrates it as the throne of Evander, and its branches as the canopy under which he received and seated A‘neas. ** On sods of turf he sat, the soldiers round ; A maple throne, rais’d higher from the ground, Receiv’d the Trojan chief; and o’er the bed A lion’s shaggy hide, for ornament, they spread.” FENEIS, 8. Pliny enumerates ten different kinds of the maple that were known to the Romans in his time, the timber of some of which was in the highest estimation on account of its fine grain and beautiful veins. It was considered EK 4 72 SYLVA FLORIFERA. next to the citron wood in value; and we are told that in some instances, when it was finely spotted, it brought its weight in gold. To such a height did the fondness of the Romans for curious wood carry them at one period of their history, that their tables were more expensive than the jewels of their ladies. This tree was generally called cpévdapves in Greece, although they distinguished different kinds of maple by different appellations, which was also the custom of the Romans ; but it is most commonly named acer in Latin, from acer, acris, on account of the hardness of the wood, or from acre ingenium, from its being so much in use by the most ingenious artificers in fine works. Evelyn tells us, that the wood of the maple is far superior to that of beech for all kinds of turnery ware; and that in his time it was turned into cups and bowls, and worked so thin as to be almost transparent ; and. it was also greatly esteemed for its lightness, and sold under the name aier. It was likewise in considerable demand for making various mu- sical instruments. The author of the Sylva states, that by shredding up the boughs to a head, he caused the maple to shoot to a wonderful height in a little time ; at present it is seldom suffered to arrive to the size of a MAPLE TREE. 73 tree, being generally kept as underwood, and this has in all probability arisen from its character of being noxious to the subnascent plants of other kinds, by the clammy dew which it sheds upon them. It is, however, of quick growth, and affords good fuel, and ‘when allowed to grow into timber, it makes excellent gunstocks, screws for cyder presses, and other purposes that require hard wood. In the vale of Gloucester and other places where oak timber is scarce, it is used for making gates and for other purposes of husbandry. _ The largest maple tree in England, is in the church-yard of Boldre, in Hampshire, under whose branches the Rev. William Gilpin, author of “ Remarks on. Forest Scenery,” &c. lies buried. The common maple, acer campestre, flowers in the beginning of April, and the leaves appear about fourteen days later. It is raised by seed, but very seldom cultivated at present, though there are thirteen distinct species of maple, besides several varieties. The sugar maple, acer saccharinum, is of great import- ance to the inhabitants of North America, as its saccharine sap affords them sugar, and little if at all inferior to what is obtained trom the cane in the West India islands. Our 74 SYLVA FLORIFERA. account of this tree will be found under the article Sucar, in the history of cultivated vegetables. The scarlet flowermg maple, acer rubrum, is cultivated as an ornament for the shrub+ bery, where it flowers in April. It is a native of North America, and is found abundantly in the swamps of Pennsylvania, where the. bark is used to dye a dark blue colour, and also. for an ingredient in making ink. The Canadians tap this tree, from the juice of which they make both sugar and treacle, as well as from the sugar maple. Mr. John Tradescant cultivated the scarlet flowering maple in this country as long back as 1656. 15 MEZEREON. — MEZEREUM. A SPECIES OF DAPHNE. Natural order, Veprecule. Thymelee, Suss. A genus of the Octandria Monogynia class. ‘© See Nature hastes her earliest wreath to bring With all the incense of the breathing spring.” Pork. ‘© Mezereon too, Though leafless, well attired, and thick beset With blushing pane investing every spray.” CowPeER. Tuis pretty shrub, which decks its branches with garnet-coloured petals so amply as to hide its dead-looking wood, and often so early that its murrey flowers shine above a bed of snow, has been made in floral lan- guage to express a desire to please, whilst others make it the emblem of coquetry, com- paring it to anymph, who in the midst of winter seeks admiration in her summer robes. As our admiration is demanded in the saloon by the well-dressed coquette, so is our notice attracted in the shrubbery by this 76 SYLVA FLORIFERA. early-flowering plant, whose perfume, like the arts of coquetry, is both delightful and dangerous. The mezereon sometimes blossoms as early as the end of January or beginning of Febru- ary, and when three or four of them are planted in a group, the effect is very agree- able, as the whole shrub becomes a mass of flowers without confusing the branches, the top of each of which terminates with a tuft of leaves like the crown of a pine apple, but of a beautiful yellow green, which harmonises as agreeably with the garnet set spray, as the grey green contrasts with the golden fruit of the ananas. It is no small recommendation to the mezereon, that it holds its flowers for a considerable length of time, and seldom fades until eclipsed by the arrival of the more delicate petals of the almond, that also blooms on a leafless bough. The fruit of the mezereon is a berry of a fine red colour, that is exceedingly orna- mental in June and July, but whose qualities are of a more deadly poison than the arts of the coquette, whose Injuries seldom’ prove mortal. The whole of the mezeron is ‘extremely acrid, particularly when fresh, and if retained in the mouth excites great heat and inflam- MEZEREON. 17 mation, particularly of the throat and fauces. The branches should therefore never be suffered to be cut for nosegays, as young people may be injured by putting the sprigs into their mouths. Children should be espe- cially cautioned against gathering the berries. Mr. Bradley tells us that he ate some of this fruit, which were not unpleasant in taste, but that in about an hour after he had swallowed them, he found an extraordinary heat in his throat, which caused a violent burning pain for about twelve hours. , Nature, whose works never cease to excite our admiration, astonishes us by the wonders contained in the buds of this plant, where not only the flowers, but the parts of fructifica- tion may be distinctly seen the year before they unfold themselves. How infinitely do these secret labours surpass the most finished performance of the ablest human artist, yet how few regard them in comparison to the number that run after the works of man ! Modern botanical works claim the mezereon as a native of our soil, but we are decidedly of opinion that their claim is founded on error. It does not appear to have been known to our earliest writers on plants, and is not mentioned by Turner, in 1568; and Gerard tells us, in his voluminous. work of 78 SYLVA FLORIFERA. 1597, that “ this plant groweth naturally in the moyst and shadowie woods of most of the Kast-countries, especially about Elbing, which we call Meluin, in Polande; from whence I have had great plentie thereof for my garden, where they flower, flourish, and bring their fruit to maturitie.’ This author calls it ** Spurge Flaxe, or Dwarffe Bay,” which he says “ the Dutchmen call Mezereon, and the English, Dutch Mezereon ; but we,” he adds, * had rather call it Chamelea Ger- manica.” Parkinson gives it this latter name with the addition of that of mezereon, in his work on plants, entitled “ the Garden of Pleasant Flowers,” which was published in 1629; and in his larger work of 1640, he re- tains the same name, calling it also Flowering Spurge; and he says “ it grows naturally in Germanie;” but that the Spurge laurel grows wild in England. It was never disco- vered by the indefatigable Ray, or his imme- diate successors in this country. Miller was the first author who mentions the mezereon as a native of this country; and which was not until about 240 years after it had been introduced by Gerard. Miller con- sidered it indigenous to our soil, because it had been found growing near Andover, in Hampshire. It has since been found by Mr. 21 i i eee MEZEREON. 79 White, in Selborne-hanger, in the same county ; by Mr. Woodward, at Laxfield in Suf- folk ; and it has also been seen in the beech woods of Buckinghamshire. But these late dis- coveries by no means prove it a native of the soil, as it is well known how anxiously the thrush and blackbird hunt the garden for the berries of this shrub, the seeds of which are thus conveyed into the copse or wood ; where when one plant has sprung up, others would soon succeed, as we have always observed numerous young plants springing up beneath this shrub in the plantation. We now reckon eleven different species of the daphne, one of which daphne laureola, spurge laurel, is a native of our woods, and although a plant whose flowers make but little show, its fine evergreen leaves recommend it to the planter, and more particularly as it thrives under the shade of trees or taller shrubs, where but few other plants will exist. _ There is a variety of the mezereon with white blossoms, and yellow berries, and another with variegated leaves. They are all raised by seed, sown as soon as ripe in Au- gust. The bed or border should be exposed © to an eastern aspect; and the plant thrives best in a light sandy earth that is dry, for in 80 SYLVA FLORIFERA. cold wet land it becomes mossy, and neither makes much ‘progress, nor produces many flowers. The mezereon seldom exceeds from three to four feet in height, and therefore it should be placed in the foreground of taller shrubs, - for when set in the middle of the plantation it is sooner obscured by faster and taller erowing shrubs. | The Neapolitan mezereon, Daphne Collina, is an evergreen that covers the hills and fields on the banks of the Vulturnus, in Italy, as the furze does our commons in England, and it is now found to endure the winters of our climate nearly as well as the common mezereon. It was first cultivated in this coun- try in 1752; but as an ornament to the shrub- bery we prefer the deciduous kind, as the flowers of the Neapolitan mezereon are partly obscured by the leaves. This genus of plants is supposed to be the Aagvy of Theophrastus and Dioscorides ; but as there is some doubt of this from the brief remarks they have made on the plant under that name, we shall confine ourselves to the discoveries which modern physicians have made of the virtues of the mezereon, the most important of which was found out by Dr. Russel, whilst physician to St. Thomas’s —----- MEZEREON. 81 Hospital ; but as it only concerns the sons of Esculapius and the disciples of Venus, we shall refer them to the London Med. Obs. vol. ii. p. 189. The considerable and long-continued heat and irritation that is produced in the throat, when mezereon is chewed, induced Dr. Withering to give it in a case of difficulty of swallowing, seemingly occasioned by a para- lytic affection. The patient was directed to chew a slice of the root as-often as she could bear it, and in about a month she recovered her power of swallowing; she had suffered the above complaint upwards of three years, and was greatly reduced, being totally unable to swallow solids, and liquids but very imper- fectly. * The medical men of France have a practice of applying the bark of this plant to the skin, for the purpose of producing a discharge or issue without blistering; and it is thus ren- dered useful in chronic cases of a local nature, answering the purpose of what is termed a perpetual blister, whilst it occasions less pain and inconvenience. The operation is _per- formed, by affixing to the skin a piece of the bark about an inch square, that has been pre- * Woodville. VOL. II, G 82 é. SYLVA FLORIFERA. viously soaked in vinegar; an ivy or ihigtaid leaf is then bound over it, and this is renewed night and morning until a discharge is esta- plished, then once a day is sufficient. Gerard notices the medicinal qualities of this plant, and tells us in his usual quaint manner, that “if a drunkard do eate one graine or berrie of it, he cannot be allured to drinke any drinke at that time, such will be the heate of his mouth and choaking in the throte.” 83 MOUNTAIN SERVICE. — MOUNTAIN _ASH, or QUICKEN TREE. — SORBUS AUCUPARIA. Natural order, Pomacee. Rosacee, Juss. A genus of the Icosandria Trigynia class. *¢ Where shrubs and fruits their mingled sweets exhale, Or flowers, or trees, whose branches proudly bend, Their different bloom, their different race extend ; Through them what interest do your fields present ! Observe their varied colours, form, and bent.” , | | DELILLE. Turs elegant tree seems designed by nature “as an ornament to our mountainous planta- tions of fir and pine, whose dark and fixed foliage contrast so decidedly with the light green tint of these long pinnated leaves, which are seen to move with additional grace when placed in the foreground of sombre trees. It is in this natural situation that the large corymbs or umbelliferous clusters of white flowers are so conspicuously beautiful in the month of May, when each branch is terminated by these bouquets of pearly blos- soms. But it is in the months of August and G 2 84 SYLVA FLORIFERA. September, that the mountain ash adds so much to the gaiety of picturesque scenery, when the glowing vermilion fruit decorates the boughs so superbly by its pendent pomes, for botanical language will not allow us to say berries, because the seeds of this plant are disposed like that of the apple in a fleshy pulp, and divided into cells. Ancient poets tell us, that the Amazons formed their spears of this wood, by which they boldly defended themselves against mor- ‘tals, whilst the Cambro and the North Bri- tains, in later times, depended on the, powers of this wood ‘to protect them from ‘super- natural enemies; and ‘there are still some persons, who cling so obstinately to supersti- tion, as to believe that any small piece: of this tree carried about them, will prove a sove- reign charm against all the effects of enchant- ment or witchcraft. In Wales, says Mr. Evelyn, “ this tree is reputed so sacred, that, as there 1s ‘not .a church-yard without one of them planted in it, (as amongst us the:yew), so on a certain day in the year, every body religiously wears a cross made of the wood, and it is reputed to be a preservative against. fascinations and evil spirits, whence perhaps we call it witchen, the boughs being stuck about the house, or MOUNTAIN SERVICE. 85 the wood used for walking staves.” It seems to have been one of the sacred Druidical trees, as stumps of it were frequently found near the circle of their temples; and Mr. Lightfoot remarks, that this tree may to this day be observed to grow more frequently than any in the neighbourhood of the Druidi-. cal circles of stones, so often seen in North Britain. ys It is curious to observe for what opposite. purposes plants are used in different coun- tries. The mountain-ash, which our northern friends so religiously planted to keep off en- chantment and sorceries, is most carefully propagated by our more southern neighbours, as one of the principal charms by which they entice the belles of Paris into the public gar- dens, where they are at liberty to use all the _ spells and witcheries which they are mistresses | of; and it must be confessed that no tree has a more enchanting appearance when lighted up with lamps than the mountain-ash, by its brilliant scarlet fruit, in the months of August and September. At Strathspey, in Scotland, it is the prac- tice of the country people to make a hoop with the wood of this tree, through which they oblige all the sheep and lambs to pass both in the morning and evening of the first G3 86 SYLVA FLORIFERA. - of May; and the Scotch dairy-maid will drive her cattle to the shealings or summer | pastures, with no other rod than that of the roan-tree, by which name it is generally known in Scotland. It obtained the name_ of mountain-ash, in England, from its grow- ing in hilly situations, and its leaves being pinnated like those of the common ash, fraai- us; but it has no more affinity to the ash, than the apple-tree has to the oak. - The trivial name of aucuparia was given it from the practice of the fowlers, who use the fruit to bait their sprmges with, by which they entice the redwings and fieldfares to their snare. The Scottish. highlanders, as- well as the inhabitants of Kamtschatka, distil an ardent spirit from this fruit ; and in Wales the poor people infuse it in water, and make an acid liquor resembling cider, which they drink with pleasure. In the island of Jura they use the juice of this fruit as an acid for punch. The wood of this tree is tough and close- orained, but not hard; and it appears to have ue much more ont in our woods for- merly, than at present; as Evelyn says, it is mentioned in a statute of Henry the Eighth, and he observes, that the fletchers commend MOUNTAIN SERVICE. 87 it for bows next to yew, and that the wheel- wrights praise it for being all heart. It is a native of cold mountains, and grows naturally on Mount Libanus, and also in Siberia, as well as in Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and the northern parts of England, where it becomes a considerable-sized timber-tree. This highly ornamental tree is raised from seed, and it will grow upon almost any soil, either strong or light, moist or dry. Its situation in the pleasure ground should be between the tallest flowering shrubs and the forest trees. We have already noticed the colour and time of its flowering as a guide to what neighbour the planter should give it ; but it is in the latter part of the summer that it makes the greatest figure, when loaded with its showy bunches of fruit, that have a delightful effect in the shrubbery, when there are but few shrubs in flower, and just before the trees change their summer tints for their autumnal hues. The fruit of the mountain service is so tempting to the thrush and blackbird, that it is sure to attract these sweet warblers to the grove where it grows. “ Sanguineisque inculta rubent woiaria baceis.” VIRGIL, c 4 88 “MYRTLE. — MYRTUS. Natural order, Hesperidee. ~ Myrti, Juss. A genus of the Icosandria Monogynia class. “‘ and the fragrant branch ! Of glossy myrtle.” Mrs. M. Rosrnson. ‘* Now let us range both far and wide, Thro’ all the garden’s boasted pride, There rising myrtles form a shade, “There roses blush, and scent the glade.” Corron. Puusibexistifol plant, which attracts our at- tention by its irresistible charms, was made the emblem of Love, and dedicated to Beauty, when Venus first sprang from the froth of the sea. Mythological writers tell us, that when this fair goddess first appeared on the bosom of the waves, the Hours preceded her with a scarf of a thousand ¢olours, and a gar- land of myrtle. “ Her waving locks immortal odours shed, And breath’d ambrosial scents around her head. _To the soft Cyprian shores the goddess moves, To visit Paphos and her BISEHIY groves; Where to her pow’r a hundred altars rise, And breathing odours scent the balmy skies. MYRTLE. 89 Conceal’d, she bathes in consecrated bow’rs, The Graces unguents shed, ambrosial show’rs, Unguents which charm the gods: she, last, assumes ier ee robes; and all the goddess blooms.” Porr’s Homer, and Pirt’s Virgil. _ From the delightful perfume of the myrtle, the delicacy of its blossoms, and the glossy green of its perpetual foliage, it seems des- tined to ornament the forehead of beauty, and the temple of Venus, who was crowned with myrtle by the loves, after her victory over Juno and Pallas. It was with the branches of this tree that the mother of Cupid revenged herself on the audacious Psyche, who had dared to compare her transitory charms to an immortal beauty. It is also related, that Venus being surprised by a troop of satyrs as she was coming out of the bath, took re- fuge behind a myrtle-bush, which increased her attachment to this tree. We learn from mythological fables, that crowns of myrtle were anciently called Nau- cratites, from the following miraculous story which is related of Herostratus, a Naucratian merchant, who was overtaken by a terrible tempest at sea, that threatened to destroy his ship and all the mariners, until they implored the assistance of a little statue of Venus which he had brought into the vessel. Their sup- plications being attended to by the voddess, 90° SYLVA FLORIFERA- she caused a great number of myrtles to rise in and around the ship, with which the sailors formed crowns; and on their safe arrival at Naucrates, Herostratus presented the statue and the myrtles to the temple that was conse- crated to Venus ; on which occasion he gave a feast, where he distributed the crowns of myrtle to the guests, whence they were called Naucratites. Pliny tells. us that the Romans and the Sa- bines, when they were reconciled, laid down theirarms by a myrtle-tree,where they purified themselves with the fragrant boughs of this sacred tree ; and that to make atonement, and to. ratify their marriage with the Sabine wo- men, the former people built a temple on the spot, in which was placed an image of the goddess, and which was dedicated to Venus Cloacina, from cluere, that is, to cleanse, The same author informs us, that myrtles were amongst the first trees that the people planted in the public places of Rome, to presage future events; and that there were two sacred myrtles growing before the temple of Quiri- nus, one of the oldest edifices in Rome, and erected in honour of Romulus. One of these myrtles was called Patritia, the myrtle of the nobility, and the other Plebeia, the myrtle of the commonalty ; and as either of these trees MYRTLE. 9] flourished or decayed, so the success of these opposite parties was prognosticated. The temple of Quirinus was repaired under the consul Lucius Papirus Cursor, in the year 306 before Christ, when the first sun-dial that had been seen at Rome was set up. There was also in Rome an ancient chapel and altar consecrated to Venus Myrtea, by which name the goddess was often worshipped. Pausanias relates, that at Lemnos there was a statue of Venus, formed of myrtle, which Pelops caused to be made to insure his mar- riage with Hippodamia. The myrtle-wreath was worn by those ge- nerals who obtained victories without blood- shed. Posthumius Tubertus, when consul of Rome, was the first who was honoured with this crown when he entered the capital in ovation, after having conquered the Sabines without shedding blood. These chaplets were dedicated to Venus Victrix. Papyrius Masso, who triumphed over the Corsicans, was al- lowed for ever after to wear this crown when he visited the Circensian games. The weapons of war were also formed of this tree, as Virgil writes, “ > 189 The stalks of the musk rose are often too weak to support the large bunches of flowers that crown its branches. It therefore re- quires a support to keep them from the earth, unless it be planted with dwarf evergreens, that form a natural and beautiful prop to these delicate blossoms. THE YELLOW ROSE. —Lutea and Sulphurea. Tue single yellow brier rose, /utea, is said to be a native of Germany, the south of France, and Italy; and the single orange-coloured rose, bicolor, is an Austrian rose. That it was through these countries we first became acquainted with the yellow rose, there can be no hesitation in stating; but that they were originally brought from more eastern climates, seems equally certain, since no ancient author that we have consulted, mentions a yellow rose of any description ; and, had it been a flower created by the art of grafting, as was formerly imagined, we should, ere this, have discovered the fact. Ludovico Verthema tells us, in 1503, that he saw great quantities of yellow roses at Calicut, from whence we have no doubt, both the sin- 190 SYLVA FLORIFERA. gle and double varieties. were brought into Rarope by the Turks, as Parkinson tells us in a work which he dedicated to Henrietta, the queen of our unfortunate Charles the First, that the double yellow rose “ was first pro- cured to be brought into England, by Master Nicholas Lete, a worthy merchant of Lon- don, and a great lover of flowers, from Con- stantinople, which (as we hear) was first brought thither from Syria, but perished quickly both with him, and to all other to whom he imparted it: yet, afterwards it was sent to Master John de Franqueville, a mer- chant also of London, and a great lover of all rare plants, as well as flowers, from which is sprung the greatest store, that is now flourishing in this kingdom.” The double yellow rose, sulphurea, was un- known to us in 1597; but the single yellow brier was then common, as we find by Gerard. The single yellow rose, /utea, blossoms freely in most situations, excepting in the vicinity of London, or other confined spots. The double yellow rose, where it blossoms freely, is one of the most elegant flowers that any country has produced, and had nature bestowed on it the perfume that makes the Provence rose so delightful, it would be pro- nounced the acme of Flora’s skill. ROSE. 191 The outer petals are of the most delicate golden yellow, whilst the inner ones are often of a tint approaching to copper colour, and so delicately thin and transparent, as even to surpass the carnation poppy in texture; and although the flower is exceedingly double, yet the petals hang with a looseness and elegance that scarcely can be conceived without be- holding it. Van Os the elder has been the most happy amongst painters in giving that trans- parent and crumpled effect to this rose, which Van Huysum himself could never so perfectly accomplish. Sydenham Edwards has left .a faithful representation of the double yellow rose, which is given in the 46th page of the Botanical Register. We remember this species of rose much more common than at present, growing in open situations, and we have generally ob- served that it has prospered best in an eastern aspect, where buildings or shrubs have shel- tered it from the midday sun. It loves a light soil, of a gravelly or sandy nature, but cannot endure confined or wet situations. We have seen it in great perfection in a garden at Petersfield, in Hampshire; and it prospers and flowers freely in some parts of the South Downs, particularly at Findon, in Sussex. It seems much less affected by the 192 SYLVA FLORIFERA. cold’ than by low and damp situations ; and we do not recollect having met with it in flower except in spots open to the east, which generally is considered the most pernicious to plants. The foliage of the double yellow rose is small, and of a beautiful bluish green, very light on the under side, whilst the stalks being of a delicate yellow-green, form a de- lightful graduation to the golden flower. — THE EVER-BLOWING CHINA ROSE. —° Semperflorens. When this species of rose was first intro- duced, in 1789, it was considered to be so de- licate a plant, that it was kept constantly in the stove, and the smallest cuttings were sold for many guineas each. It was soon found to thrive in a common green-house, where it blossomed the whole winter, to the great admiration and no small amazement of all who could obtain sight of this far-fetched flower. As it was found to be of so easy a propagation, in afew years every country casement had the pride of sheltering this Chinese prodigy, until the cottager, for want of pence to purchase flower- pots, planted it in the open ground ; when, ROSE. 193 as if it gloried to breathe in the air of this land of liberty, it soon surpassed in strength and beauty all the inmates of the “ gardens, in which art supplies the fervour and the force of Indian skies.” We have no plant upon record, either of utility or beauty, that has spread itself so rapidly over the whole country as this rose has done in our own age. It now climbs up to look into the attic windows of the very houses where we once saw it peep out of the lower casement; and it is not uncommon to see its petals blush through a veil of snow in the month of December ; a thing so unusual formerly, that no longer back than the year 1800, Mrs. Mary Robinson wrote the follow- ing verses on seeing a rose in flower at a cottage door on Egham-hill, on the 25th of October of that year. “¢ Why dost thou linger still, sweet flower ? Why yet remain, thy leaves to flaunt ? This is for thee no fostering hour — The cold wind blows, And many a chilling, ruthless shower, Will now assail thee, beauteous rose !” Although it is acknowledged that few plants contribute more agreeably to orna- ment our shrubbery in the autumnal months than this Chinese rose, yet we would not VOL. Il. O 194 SYLVA FLORIFERA. wish it to exclude or lessen the cultivation of the older and more beautiful species, but which, we fear, it has already done to a con- siderable degree. As the smallest cuttings of | this rose will grow, we are not without the hope of seeing it creep into our hedgerows, where it would soon propagate itself both by suckers and.seed ; for it ripens its fruit in this climate as perfectly as those of our native briers, and the hips of the Chinese rose are particularly ornamental, from their inverted pear shape, fine orange colour, and large size. The deep-red China rose was first intro- duced by Gilbert Slater, Esq. of Knots- green, near Laytonstone, in the year 1789; but this is still confined to the greenhouse, being of a much more delicate nature than the common China rose. ‘The flowers are semi-double, and large in proportion to the plant, of a fine dark carmine colour, and of a delightful fragrance. The China rose, which has been named Lady Banks’s Rose, rosa Banksie, we hope to see soon hardy enough to leave the green- house, where it has occupied a place since the year 1807. This is a double-white rose, of very diminutive size, but producing such abundance of blossoms, as to render the branches extremely elegant. We are. in- — ROSE. 195 formed that it was discovered growing out of an old wall in China. In pleasure-grounds it is scarcely possible to plant too many rose-trees, and they have the best effect when three or four plants of the same kind stand together. The Scotch or burnet-leaved rose, from its dwarf growth, forms a good foreground to other roses; and the neat little Rose de Meaux should advance towards the walks, whilst the more towering kinds may mix with shrubs of the middle class. Where the lawn is interspersed with little clumps, fenced with basket-work, each clump or basket should be confined to one species of rose,or kinds that are quite opposite in colour; and as it is particularly desirable to keep these clumps successively in blossom during the season, those clumps which blossom the earliest and the latest should be divided by others that flower in the intermediate space. | Rosaries are formed in various devices ; but the most common method is by planting the tallest standard rose-trees in the centre of a clump, around which the different species and varieties are placed according to their height of growth, the edge finishing by the dwarf kinds. Rock work is sometimes covered with o 2 196 SYLVA FLORIFERA. creeping roses, and surrounded with other varieties. For covering arbours or trellis-work, the bracted rose, Rosa bracteata, commonly called Sir George Staunton’s rose, which was brought from China in the year 1795, is the most proper, as it grows to a great height, and thick of branches that are covered with shin- ing leaves of a very fine green. ‘The flowers are single and perfectly white, of a strong and agreeable perfume: it blossoms in August and September. The modes of retarding the flowering of the Provence and moss-roses, until the au- tumn are various; and as it is desirable to continue these beauties of the garden longer than they are naturally disposed to last, we © shall mention the best means of obtaining this enjoyment. The most simple method is by cutting off all the tops of the shoots that have been produced the same spring, which should be done just before they begin to show their buds; this will cause them to make fresh shoots, that will produce flowers late in the autumn. It may also be done by trans- planting the bushes in the spring, just as they have formed their buds, which should be cut off, but the roots must not be out of the earth long enough to become dry, and they gene- of ROSE. 197 rally require watering when transplanted late, to obtain roses in October and November. On the continent, where much more pains are bestowed on the retarding of flowers than in this country, the rose-trees are dug up just as they begin to shew a leaf-bud, and the roots are instantly placed in a kind of mortar, formed of brick earth, which serves as a pre- servative plaster, whilst it debars the fibres of the roots from obtaining the necessary nu- triment that would cause the usual growth of the plant, From this state of rest, the plants are removed into the clumps or flower bor- ders in May or June, according to the time they are wished to be in blossom. When the season is dry, they will require frequent watering to ensure fine flowers. These plants should be kept in a cellar or a shed, where there is but little light. The common Provence and moss-roses are the most esteemed for forcing, on. account of their perfume. “‘ This soft family, to cares unknown, Were born for pleasure and delight alone. Gay without toil, and lovely without art, They spring to cheer the sense and glad the heart.” Mrs. BARBAULD. Yet this sweet emblem of love, like the 0 3 198 SYLVA FLORIFERA. human body, breeds a canker in its bosom, that often destroys its heart. «¢ She never told her love, But let concealment, like a worm i’the bud, Prey on her damask cheek.” SHAKSPEARE. -—_—~ ‘“ Death’s subtle seed within, (Sly, treacherous miner !) working in the dark, * * * * * The worm to riot on that rose so red, Unfaded, ere it fell; one moment’s prey !” Youne. The principal enemy of the rose is a species of fly, called the rose Saw-fly, Tenthredo rosea, which pierces the tender flower-bud, and thrusts an egg into the puncture, which soon becomes a caterpillar, that nourishes itself by eating away the heart of the young flower and fruit down to where it joins the stalk. It then loses its supply of nourishment, droops to one side and dies, whilst the in- sect spins itself a descending rope, by which it reaches the ground, and there entombs its body in a silken shell, whilst its transform- ation takes place first into a chrysalis, and then a fly, which renews this work of de- vastation. There are several flies of this genus, that are all equally injurious to the rose-tree. These flies are furnished with a very remarkable instrument, in the shape of a saw, by which they make small holes in the ROSE. 199 bark of the young branches, where they de- posit their numerous eggs, which on the suc- ceeding summer are hatched by the warmth of the sun, and nourished by the ascending sap, until they assume the appearance of small green flies, in which state they issue from the bark in such numbers as to cover the tender shoots and leaves, on which they. rest, to suck the nutriment of the plant. These flies. may be known by a yellow body and black head, with four wings edged with black, and yellow legs spotted’ with black. ‘Another species of rose-fly: has a: head and breast of violet colour, with a body of yellow, and legs and wings of pale violet. It may be seen in a summer’s morning working on the branches:of the rose-tree, and from its slug- gish nature will suffer itself to-be taken be- tween the fingers. The branches where it has deposited its eggs are so vitiated. by it, that they are easily discovered, as they gene- rally swell to a greater size than the parts above or below, and they often become black on the under side: when examined with a glass, the eggs may be discovered. These branches should be carefully cut off; and when the plants are covered with these in- sects, it is desirable to brush them off with a bunch of feathers or young elder branches, as Gis 200 SYLVA FLORIFERA. they fix themselves too fast to be washed off by water. Insects may be destroyed bi placing a chafing dish, with lighted charcoal under the bushes, and then throwing a little brimstone on the coals; but this must be done in small quantities, and carefully, lest the sulphur in- jure the plants. The lady-bird, coccinella punctata, so named from the points or specks on its shell wings, hunts rose bushes to feed on the small insects vulgarly called blights. The brier and Scotch roses are frequently attacked by the Ci ynips rose, which, by punc- turing the bark, occasions the production of those iat and beautiful flossy tufts, which are sO Femashily seen on wild roses. These rose galls contain several little cavities, in each of which is a small maggot. This substance was formerly used in medicine, under the name of Bedeguar. The rose is too important a flower to have been overlooked by A‘sculapius, who in old times used every part of this plant, from the root to the yellow anthers within the blossom, for some particular purpose in medicine, as may be seen in the works of all the ancient medical authors. The kinds of roses princi- pally used in modern practice, are the red and ROSE. 201 the damask. The latter is considered a safe and gentle purgative for children, when admi- nistered in infusion or by way of syrup. The red roses are astringent, and particu- larly so when taken before they are fully blown; conserves are made of both these kinds of roses. Ladies may make their own milk of roses, by simply adding one ounce of the oil of almonds to a pint of rose water, after which ten drops of the oil of tartar is to be added. We shall conclude our history of the rose with the lines of the Ayrshire Ploughman. “© Never may’st thou, lovely flower, Chilly shrink in sleety show’r ! Never Boreas’ hoary path, Never Eurus’ pois’nous breath, Never baleful stellar lights, Taint thee with untimely blights ! Never, never, reptile thief, Riot on thy virgin leaf! Nor even Sol too fiercely view Thy bosom blushing still with dew ! May’st thou long, sweet crimson gem, Richly deck thy native stem ; Till some ev’ning, sober, calm, Dropping dews, and breathing balm, While all around the woodland rings, And ev’ry bird thy requiem sings ; Thou, amid the dirgeful sound, Shed thy dying honours round, And resign to parent earth The loveliest form she e’er gave birth.” 202 RHODODENDRON.— RHODODENDRON.. Natural order, Bicornes ;. Rhododendra, Juss: A genus of the Decandria Monogynia class.. ‘¢ O’er pine-clad hills, and dusky plains, In silent state Rhodonia reigns, And spreads, in beauty’s softest blooms, Her purple glories through the glooms.” —_ Suaw.. Tue Greeks named this. flowering shrub Pododevdpov, Rhododendron, from gedw, a rose, and devdpv, a tree. It was also called in that lan- guage Rhododaphne, the rose laurel. Pliny observes, that this plant was not so happy as. to have a name given it by the Latins, and it is somewhat remarkable, that it should retain to this day the original name throughout Kurope. The foliage of this shrub is a poison to horses, asses, mules, sheep, and goats, &c. ; yet it was anciently esteemed one of the best counter-poisons to man, particularly against the venom of serpents. ; Tournefort tells us that there is a kind of rhododendron about Trebizond, whose flowers -_ RHODODENDRON. 203 the bee feeds upon, and the honey thence obtained drives those mad that eat of it. «* Ev’n as those bees of Trebizond, — Which from the sunniest flowers that glad With their pure smile the garden round, Draw venom forth that drives men mad !” T. Moone. The upper segment of the flowers of this plant performs the office of nectary. It is grooved in the middle, and is so fertile in the formation of honey, that you may observe a sweet globule in almost every expanded flower. There are in this part spots of a dingy purple, that indicate poison, and so well were the Romans acquainted with the poisonous nature of this honey, that they would not receive the Pontic honey in tri- bute, but obliged the unfortunate inhabitants of that neighbourhood to pay them a double portion of wax in lieu of it. Dr. Turner, who wrote on this plant about the year 1568, says, “ I have sene thys tre in diverse places of Italy, but I care not if it neuer com into England, seyng it in all poyntes is lyke a pharesey, that is beauteus without, and within a rauenus wolf and mur- derer.” Notwithstanding this appalling character, the Pontic rhododendron found its way into 204 SYLVA FLORIFERA. the British shrubbery in the year 1763, where it still continues to display its clusters of fine purple blossoms, during the months of May and June, to the delight of all. the lovers of flowering shrubs. In the royal gardens at Kew there are groves of these plants, which, when in full flower, present a mass of purple beauties that are splendid beyond description. The original birth-place of this shrub ‘is thought to have been in the southern subal- pine tracts of Caucasus, where it still abounds in wet places, particularly in beech and alder woods; but it is not now confined to the neighbourhood of the Black sea, as it has extended itself to many places of the Levant, and reached even to Gibraltar. » = all WILLOW. 273 suit’s bark. To which the venerable Evelyn adds, “all kinds of basket work, pill-boxes: cart saddle trees, gunstocks, and half pikes, harrows, shoemaker’s lasts, heels, clogs for pattens, forks, rakes, perches, rafters for hovels, ladders, poles for hop vines, hurdles, sieves, lattices for the turner in making tops, platters, small casks and vessels, especially to preserve verjuice in; pales, dorsers, fruit baskets, cans, hives, trenchers, trays,” &c. &c., to which we may add cricket bats, and nume- rous other articles where lightness and tough- ness of wood are desirable. The wood of the willow although tender, has the property of whetting knives like a whetstone; therefore all knife boards should be formed of this tree in preference to any other. The bark of the common white willow will tan leather and dye yarn of a cinnamon colour. The Arabs distil their celebrated calaf water from the catkins of any species in which they are fragrant. They use this water as a cooling beverage, or as a febrifuge. In Persia they obtain one of their most esteemed perfumes from the flowers of several kinds of willow. The downy substance that covers the seeds VOL. I. T Q74 SYLVA FLORIFERA. of several species of willow, particularly the bay-leaved, Salix pentandria, forms the soft and warm lining of the nests of the goldfinch and some other birds, from whom we have learnt to collect it as a substitute for cotton in stuffing mattresses and chair cushions, &c., and when mixed with a third part of cotton, it has been advantageously used for candle- wick and many other similar purposes. The Germans collect it for the purpose of making wadding, so much used in ladies winter dresses, and a useful ordinary paper may be formed of this cottony substance. The dry husks of these trees remaining after the flowers and seeds are fallen, are wholesome as food, people in times of famine having lived upon them boiled in water. Some of the kinds of willow, particularly the white willow, will grow to large and lofty trees; they have been seen nine feet in diameter, or twenty-seven feet in circum- ference, and when perfectly hollow, will give vigorous shoots and flowers by means of the bark. The crack willow, Salix fragilis, grows to be one of the largest trees of this genus. The osier, Salix viminalis, is much cultivated in osierholts, for making hoops and the larger sorts of baskets, hampers, cradles, bird-cages, &c. Putcheons and weels for catching eels 9 i. t i WILLOW. 975 are formed from the twigs of this tree, whilst its trunk prevents the banks of rivers from being washed away by the force of the cur- rent. The basket osier, Salix jfissa, is principally propagated in the fens, and is preferred to all other willows or osiers for basket-work. The great round-leaved sallow, Salix caprea, delights in a dry rather than a moist soil; it is generally used for hurdles, and the trunk is admirable for many purposes with the turner. This tree is known by its round or rather oval leaves, which are rough and waved, in- dented at the top and woolly underneath. The catkins are very large, and white, and appear early in the spring, on which account they are much resorted to by the bees, on their first coming out of their hives at that early season, when few other flowers are ex- panded, and the quantities of pollen which the numerous anthers of this plant give, enable them to obtain both food and wax in abun- dance. All the sorts of willows are easily propa- gated by planting cuttings or sets either in the spring or autumn, but the spring is found to be the most favourable time for this purpose ; and as they are quick growing trees, they should oftener invite the attention of those Ww 2 276 SYLVA FLORIFERA. who have lands suitable to their cultivation, for as they make almost immediate profit, it must be desirable to attend to their propaga- tion, particularly in those tracts of lands fit only for this purpose, and which at present produce little to the owners; but if planted with osiers and willows of different kinds, would turn to as good account as the best corn land. Martyn says the best time for planting these cuttings in the osier grounds is February, for if they are planted sooner, they are apt to peel, if it proves hard frost, which greatly injures them. These plants are cut every year, and if the soil be suitable they will produce a great crop, so that the yearly produce of one acre has often been sold for fifteen pounds, but ten pounds is a common price, which at the present time is much better than corn land can be made to pay. In extensive shrubberies several kinds of willows may be admitted, both for ornament and variety, particularly the triandrous, or long-leaved, three-stamened willow, Salix tri- andra, which gives out such abundance of catkins in the months of April and May; which, by their bright yellow colour greatly enliven the scene, and at the same time ren- der the air agreeable, by the scent which they exhale. WILLOW. 4! 277 The male tree should be selected for this purpose, because the female tree quickly sheds its catkins. The silver-leaved willow, alba serica, should be planted for the contrast it forms with dark evergreen shrubs, and the rosemary-leaved species-may also be intermixed with great ad- vantage in many situations. These species of trees are very interesting to the botanist. In the Linnean system they are ranged in the 22d class, called Diecia, from the Greek, meaning two houses, because this class includes the unisexual plants, viz. the male and female flowers being produced on dif- ferent roots or distinct trees. This class, there- fore, in some respects, assimilates the animal and vegetable economy; for in the plants which are perfectly dicecious, it is known that the female plants produce no fertile seed, without the proximity of the male plant when in flower. For some curious instances of this fact we refer the reader to our history of the date-bearing palm-tree in the Pomarium Bri- tannicum. The galls on the leaves of willows are usually of a roundish or oblong figure, and equally protuberant on each side of the leaf, and of a pale green at first; but afterwards of a yellowish, and finally of a red colour. "9 278 SYLVA FLORIFERA. When these galls are opened, there is found in them a worm, resembling a caterpillar in figure, with about twenty legs. This creature, when the gallis young, is blue ; it afterwards becomes greenish ; and finally, when the gall becomes red, it is white. This insect seems to eat in its prison more voraciously than any other gall insect whatever ; for while the gall increases in size, it becomes also thinner in every part, so that the creature, at the proper time, has but little difficulty to get out. When the time of the last change of this insect draws nigh, it leaves the tree, and descends to the earth, where it makes its way into a proper place,and then becomes a nymph, out of which at a proper time issues a four-winged fly, which in its turn lodges its eggs in the leaves of the willow, from whence spring thousands. of in- sects, which become the food of birds, who, in their turn are devoured by man. Thus the willow assists to convert particles of earth and mineral substances, first into vegetable, and then into animal substance, for the sub- sistence and nourishment of the human frame, | which in its turn is swallowed by the hungry grave, “© Where toil and poverty repose.” a ae YEW-TREE. — TAXUS. Natural order, Conifere. A genus of the Diecia Monadelphia class. *¢ The sacred yew, so fear’d in war.” *« And the tougher yew Receives the bending figure of a bow.” VIRGIL: ** ‘Th’ elastic yew, whose distant wound With England’s rivals heap’d the ground.” Own beholding this sable evergreen, the mind is naturally carried back to the times of bows and arrows, when the yew was as cele- brated for causing death and devastation in the field of battle, as the modern engine is at present, which levels rank and file by the dreadful balls that are vomited from its sul- phureous mouth. The Persians, who in the Scripture are called Elamites, were the most expert archers in the world; and Homer thus speaks of the ancient inhabitants of Crete, «¢ Cydonians, dreadful with the bended yew.” Ne 280 SYLVA FLORIFERA. Virgil notices the elasticity of this wood in « the Atneis. ‘¢ This foul reproach Ascanius could not hear With patience, nor a vow’d revenge forbear ; At the full stretch of both his hands, he drew, » And almost join’d, the horns of the tough yew.” yo Of all the European nations, the English are generally allowed to. have been the best archers ; ‘© Skill’d in fight, their crooked bows they bend :” and to their dexterity in the use of this weapon, is ascribed many signal victories, par- ticularly those of Cressy, Poictiers, and Agin- court, over the French; and that of Hamildon over the Scots. And long before these famous battles were fought, Henry the Second had succeeded in the enterprise of conquering Ireland, chiefly by the use of the long bow, with which the Irish were at that period (1172) entirely unacquainted. The reputation of the English as skilful archers does not pass unnoticed by Tasso ; *¢ Maggior alquanto é lo squadron Britanno : Guglielmo il regge, al re minor figliuolo, Sono gl’ Inglest sagittar7.” Canto I. Stanza 44. Ce YEW. 281 The yew, however, proved fatal to three of our kings. Harold was killed by an arrow at the battle of Hastings, in Sussex. William the Second was slain by an arrow in the New Forest, Hampshire ; * Lo, Rufus, tugging at the deadly dart, Bleeds in the forest like a wounded hart.” Pope. ‘and Richard Coeur de Lion received his death wound from the same weapon, at the siege of the castle of Chalus, near Limoges, in the department of Upper Vienne, in France. The Cheshire men are supposed to have been the most expert in the exercise of the bow, as it is related that in the year 1397, in the reign of Richard the Second, Westmin- ster-hall being in an extremely ruinous state, that monarch built a temporary room for his parliament, formed with wood and covered with tiles. It was open on all sides, that the constituents might see every thing that was said and done; and to secure freedom of de- bate, he surrounded the house with four thousand Cheshire archers, with bows bent and arrows knocked ready to shoot. ‘This fully answered the intent, for every sacrifice was made to the royal pleasure. * * Pennant’s London, p. 39, 3d edition. 982 SYLVA FLORIFERA. In Switzerland the yew-tree is only found on the Hatemberg, and the inhabitants of these mountains hold it in great veneration, because formerly they made their cross-bows and wooden lances from it, and then it was forbidden under the most severe penalties, to cut it for other purposes. These simple mountaineers still call it William’s tree, in memory of their expert archer William Tell. Various have been the reasons assigned for planting these trees in our churchyards. The most probable cause seems to us to have originated in the scarcity of this wood, which would naturally be the case as agriculture spread itself over the country, for no farmer could be safe in turning his cattle into fields, where this baleful evergreen offered its poisonous foliage to their bite. And as it appeared necessary to retain this tree for the sake of its assistance in warfare, it is probable that every parish was obliged to plant a cer- tain number of them in their respective churechyards, where they would be secure from the cattle; for had it been merely planted there for the purpose of decorating our churches at Christmas and other festival days, we should have seen the holly planted for the same purpose, which is still more in use for that purpose. YEW. 283 I'rom what we learn respecting the age of these’'trees in general, they appear to have been planted about the time of the conquest, 1066; and the same custom seems to have been attended to in Normandy at that period, as Bernardin de Saint Pierre says, “ I have seen in Lower Normandy, in a village church- yard, an aged yew planted in the time of William the Conqueror; it is still crowned with verdure, though its trunk cavernous, and through and through to the day, resem- bles the staves of an old cask.” That our ancestors relied on the yew-tree as a basis of their strength, in the same man- ner as we now rest on the oak for defence, is too well authenticated to admit a doubt. “ Of it,” says Mr. Gilpm, “ The old English yeoman made his long-bow, which he vaunt- ed, nobody but an Englishman could bend. In shooting he did not, as in other nations, keep his left hand steady, and draw his bow with his right: but keeping his right at rest upon the nerve, he pressed the whole weight of his body into the horns of his bow. Hence arose the English phrase of bending a bow ; and the French of drawing one.” In the days of archery, England could not supply its bowyers with a sufficient quantity of yew, and they were obliged by statute to 984 SYLVA FLORIFERA. import staves of it for making bows, and sometimes at very high prices. All Vene- tian ships with every butt of Malmsey or Tyre wine, were to import ten bow staves, as the price had risen from two to eight pounds per hundred. By one of the ancient statutes, a bow of foreign yew may be sold for no more than six shillings. By the fifth of Edward the Fourth, it was directed that every Englishman in Ireland, and Irishman dwelling in with Englishmen, shall have an English bow of his own height made of yew, wych, hazel, ash, or auburr (supposed to be alder). But “ as for brasell (says Roger Ascham) elme, wych, and ashe, experience doth prove them to be but mean for bowes, and so to conclude, ewe of all other things is that, whereof perfite shootinge would have a bowe made.” The thirty-third of Henry Eighth, c. 9., recites the great price of yew bows made of elke (probably elbe) yew; and reduces it to three shillings and fourpence. From the end, however, of Henry the ‘Eighth’s time, archery seems to have been chiefly considered as a pastime. Yet by the eighth of Elizabeth, c. 10., the price of bows is regulated; and thirteenth of Elizabeth, YEW. 285 c. 14., enacts, that bow staves shall be brought into the realm from the Hanse towns and the eastward. The comparative value of a yew with other trees, in former times, may be seen from the following table, taken from the ancient laws of Wales. A consecrated yew, its value is a pound. An oak, its value is six score pence. A mistletoe branch, its value is three score pence. Thirty pence is the value of every principal branch in the oak. Three score pence is the value of every sweet apple-tree. Thirty pence is the value of a sour apple-tree. Fifteen pence is the value of a wood yew-tree. Seven pence half-penny is the value of a thorn-tree. Four pence is the value of every tree after that. The great value set upon a consecrated yew, in the above table, in comparison with a com- mon tree of the same kind, induces me, says Mr. Martyn, among other reasons to think, that the yew was commonly planted in churchyards, rather from motives of super- stition, than on account of its utility in mak- 286 SYLVA FLORIFERA. ing bows, as many have supposed, for a single tree would have afforded a very scanty sup- ply for this purpose. We might have been induced to have formed the same conclusion, had we found but one tree of this kind in each churchyard, but even at the present time. it is not unfrequent to see several. In the churchyard at Aberystwith there are eleven yew-trees, the largest of which is twenty-four feet in circumference; and in Mamkilad churchyard there are twelve fine yew-trees ; which proves that it was not con- fined to the planting of a single tree. It is very natural that the yew should be considered a funeral tree from its having so long occupied a place in our cemeteries, and our fore-fathers seem to have been particu- larly careful in preserving this tree sacred, the branches of which they carried in solemn procession to the grave, and afterwards de- | posited under the bodies of their departed friends. | “‘ Let’s talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs ; Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes, Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth, Let’s choose executors, and talk of wills.” SHAKSPEARE. «¢ Now from yon black and funeral yew, That bathes the charnel house with dew.” PARNELL. YEW. 937 Our learned Ray says, that our ancestors planted the yew in churchyards, because it was an evergreen tree, as a symbol of that immortality which they hoped and expected for the persons there deposited. For the same reason this and other evergreen trees are even yet carried in funerals, and thrown into the grave with the corpse in some parts of England and Wales. But we are persuaded that this custom was taken from the Romans, and may be traced back even before their ex- istence, or before the doctrine of the immor- tality of the soul was preached or made known. The custom of carrying fragrant herbs and branches of such shrubs or trees as would prevent infection, is of great anti- quity, as well as considerable utility ; and of this ancient custom we have frequently spoken in our history of cultivated vegetables ; and Statius tells us, that garlands.of yew were usually carried at funerals. “ Beneath , that yew-tree’s shade, Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap, Each in his narrow cell for ever laid, The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.” Gray. —_—— “ The grave, dread thing, Men shiver when thou’rt named, * * * * % Well do I know thee by thy trusty yew, 288 SYLVA FLORIFERA. Cheerless, unsocial plant ! that lov’st to dwell Midst skulls and coffins, epitaphs and worms ; Where light heel’d ghosts, and visicnary shades Beneath the wan cold moon (as fame reports) Embodied thick, perform their mystic rounds. No other merriment, dull tree ! is thine.” Bualr. The dark foliage of the yew-tree seems_ well calculated to give a solemnity to the vil- lage churchyard, and its wide extending branches offer their shade to the rustic Sun- day politicians, until the treble bell anounces the time of prayer. * Qn Sunday, at the old yew-tree, Which canopies the churchyard stile, Forced from his master’s company, The faithful Trim would mope awhile ; For then his master’s only care Was the loud psalm, or fervent prayer ; And, ’till the throng the church-yard path retrod, The shepherd’s patient guard lay silent on the sod. Mrs. M. Rosinson. All nations agree in making this tree the emblem of sorrow, and our poets are not backward in condemning and adding to the revolting character of a tree, whose wood. was dedicated to war, and its shade to the dead. *¢ Where sheds the sickly yew O’er many a mouldering bone its nightly dew.” DaRwIN. YEW. 289 The baleful influence of this tree has been greatly exaggerated, and its beauties trans- formed into objects of disgust and terror. — It is unjustly accused of destroying all vegeta- tion by its blast, whilst its beautiful berries have been compared to drops of blood. The yew is not more remarkable for its toughness and elasticity, than for the fine colour and beautiful grain of its wood. *¢ Whilst the distinguish’d yew is ever seen, Unchanged his branch, and permanent his green.” This tree is still to be found in some of our old gardens, and it is common in most of the gardens in Holland, where the art of an- cient clipping and cutting is still preserved in all its gloomy stateliness and formal regularity. Vases, pyramids, or globes of yew, are the finish of each angle, whilst in other places, monstrous birds, dragons, and bears, are shaped and modelled out of these trees, as if instead of showing its natural beauties, it was intended to represent the ancient guardian of the garden as recommended by Columella of old, who says, ‘¢ Chuse the trunk of some huge antient tree; © Rough hew it, use no art; Priapus make. Him, in the middle of the garden, place, VOL, II. U 290 SYLVA FLORIFERA. _ And to him, as its guardian, homage pay, That from your ripening fruits he may deter The plundering boy; and with his threatening scythe, The robber from intended rapine keep.” Lib. 10. That the yew-leaves are a deadly poison is now too well known to require our reciting the opinions of Dioscorides, Galen, Pliny, and other ancient authors ; and that its effects are as baneful to man as they are to beasts, we feel it a duty to state, since many fatal acci- dents have arisen from its juice being admi- nistered to children for the purpose of destroy- ing worms. In an age when the affluent have so munificently established dispensaries throughout the kingdom for distributing me- dicines to the poor, there can be no excuse for the ignorant dabbling with dangerous herbs, and they should be as_ particularly cautioned to avoid hungry quacks, as one would the advice of needy lawyers. Unfortunately the quacks try their arts on the simple, and the attornies on the needy, Johnson says truly, «“ Their ambush here relentless ruffians lay, And here the fell attorney prowls for prey.” The profession of medicine has always abounded in men of the greatest liberality and philanthropy. YEW. 291 ** Patient in all their trials, they sustain The starts of passion, the reproach of pain ; With hearts affected, but with looks serene, Intent they wait through all the solemn scene; Glad if a hope should rise from nature’s strife, To aid their skill and saye*the lingering life ; But this must virtue’s generous effort be, And springs from nobler motives than a fee.” Crabbe. As few people would in this age be able to plead ignorance of the poisonous nature of yew-leaves, it is a doubt whether their admi- nistering this fatal juice to children against worms would not subject them to a trial for murder, in case of accident. Julius Ceesar, in his Commentaries, says that Cativulces, king of the Eburones, poisoned himself with the juice of the yew. Aubrey relates a case of two women who died from a drink of it; and Dr. Percival of Manchester mentions another of three children, who were killed by a spoonful of the green leaves, which was given them for worms ; they died with- out agony, or any of the usual symptoms of vegetable poisons. The same quantity of the dried leaves had been given the day before without effect. A clergyman, who was curate in Sussex, informed me (says Dr. Martyn), that a young lady and her servant, his parishioners, being seized with an ague, were advised to take a u 2 292 SYLVA FLORIFERA. decoction of rue, which they unhappily mis- taking for yew, sent to the churchyard, where a large old tree grew, and gathered a quantity of the leaves, of which they made a decoction, and drank it upon going to bed. The next morning they were both found dead. This was Sunday; on the Thursday following, the clergyman was called upon to bury them; he performed the office on the servant, but the young lady had so fine a bloom on her countenance, that they entertained hopes of her. being in a state of suspended animation, and accordingly tried the experiments usual in such cases, but without success; they de- termined, however, not to bury her at that time, but kept her until the ensuing Saturday, and even then the corpse remained totally unchanged. What made it more remarkable was, that the accident happened in Novem- ber, and the weather was of that damp murky kind in which flesh keeps the worst. We shall point out the pernicious effects cf yew on animals in general, that those who possess this tree may take the proper precau- tions to keep their cattle from it; and we shall also advise such as have yew-hedges in their gardens, to direct their gardeners to burn or bury the clippings, for when thrown care- lessly away, serious accidents have frequently YEW. 293 occurred by their having been eaten by some animal. In August 1822, a valuable riding horse belonging to E. Nicholas, Esq., of Ring- mer, in Sussex, was turned into a close where some sprigs of yew-tree (which had been clipped off in the course of the day by the gardener,) were thrown with other rubbish. The horse ate of the yew-tree clippings, and afterwards drank at a pond, which caused the animals almost immediate death. It frequently happens that due caution is not taken to secure these trees, because we do not recollect their having been the cause of accident, and we observe generally an an- tipathy in animals to them; yet these very animals may, under various circumstances, be induced to eat of it, when least expected, as happened at Chelmsford, in Kent, in January 1823; when Messrs. Woodward and Co. of that town, turned three of theirvaluable horses into a small close, adjoining which was a yew- tree.. The snow then lay so thick upon the ground as to hide every other vegetable ; the yew-tree therefore, by its tempting verdure, became irresistible. In about three hours from the time that the horses were turned out in perfect health, and full of play, two of them were found dead. Veterinary surgeons were sent for, who soon discovered that these u 3 294 SYLVA FLORIFERA. animals had eaten of the poisonous tree, and a great quantity of it was found in their stomachs. It appeared that these horses had died without even a struggle. A filly nine months old, which had been turned in at the same time, although some- what affected, was saved by the prompt ad- ministration of proper antidotes. Martyn says, in his edition of Miller, “ the twigs and leaves of yew, eaten in a very small quantity, are certain death to horses and cows, and that in a few minutes. A horse tied to a yew-hedge, or to a faggot-stack of dead yew, shall be found dead before the owner can be aware that any danger is at hand: the writer has been several times a sorrowful witness to losses of this kind among his friends; and in the isle of Ely had once the mortification to see nine young steers or bullocks of his own all lying dead in an heap, from browzing a little on an hedge of yew, in an old garden, into which they had broken in snowy weather. Even the clippings of a yew-hedge have de- stroyed a whole dairy of cows, when thrown inadvertently into a yard.” Linneus says, horses and cows refuse the yew, but sheep and goats eat it with impu- nity ; but in this instance the learned botanist is in error, at least as far as relates to sheep. YEW. 295 Some years back Mr. Stubbs, a farmer at Lancing, near Worthing, bought a flock of sheep at a west-country fair, which arriving home late in the evening, were turned into a little grass court at the front of his house, in which were some yew-hedges, on which the sheep browzed, and in the morning, the greater part of the flock were dead. It is true that the yew-trees in the sheep- wilks on the Surrey hills, and other places, appear to have had their lower branches browzed on by these animals ; but it is also true that a sheep is frequently found dead, and that it is passed over without enquiring into the cause. Martyn mentions a circumstance where six or eight sheep perished by browzing on this tree. Of the fruit of this tree Theophrastus says, it is eaten by some persons, being sweet, and considered harmless; but Dioscorides says, the berries bring on a dysentery. However, like most other boys, I have frequently eaten them in my youth, without inconvenience ; and old Gerard tells us, in his usual quaint style, that when he was young, and went to school, he and divers of his school-fellows did eat their fills of the berries of this tree. In Kensing- u 4 296 SYLVA FLORIFERA. ton gardens, the author of this work observed a middle-aged man gathering these berries, and on enquiring for what purpose they were intended, he was informed that they were esteemed good for a cough, and that he, as well as all his family, had frequently eaten quantities of them for that purpose with success. Mr. White, in his History of Selborne, says, In a yard, in the midst of a street, till very lately grew a middle-sized female yew-tree, which commonly bore great crops of berries. By the high winds usually prevailing about the autumnal equinox, these berries, when ripe, were blown down into the road, where the hogs ate them. It was remarkable, that though barrow hogs and young sows found no inconvenience from this food, yet milch sows often died after such a repast ; a circumstance that can be accounted for only by supposing that the latter, being much exhausted and hungry, devoured a larger quantity.” It is probable that this injury’ was caused by the swallowing of a great quantity of the black stones which contain the seed, and not from the mucilaginous pulp which surrounds them, as we observe the wasps are very fond of this fruit, and it will be observed that they “YEW. 297 touch no poisonous berry, and are generally attracted by the most delicious and nourishing fruits. The fruit of this tree is of a singular nature, having only that of the Gualtheria similar to it, and we are of opinion that it should rather have been called an open drupe than a berry. In its early state it resembles an acorn in miniature, but in the ripe state the cup be- comes of a coral colour, and of a glutinous nature, enclosed in an exceeding fine trans- parent skin, in which the seed is set, covered by a shell that becomes black as it reaches maturity. We have frequently observed this fruit on the trees as late as the middle of November, and we noticed them in full flower on the 20th February 1822, in Kensington gardens. The flowers come out from the side of the branches in clusters ; the male flowers having many stamina, are more conspicuous than the female; these are generally upon different trees, as the class Diecia, in which it is placed, denotes ; but we meet with some of these trees that have both male and female flowers on the same tree. ‘The pollen of these flowers is said to be injurious to bees. The yew-tree is still found growing in the wild state in many parts of the Surrey hills, 298 SYLVA FLORIFERA. particularly near Reigate, but more abun- dantly in the vicinity of Dorking. Evelyn notices it in the latter place in the time of Charles the Second: he says in his Silva, “ He that in winter should behold some of our highest hills in Surrey clad with whole woods of these trees, and box, for divers miles in circuit (as those delicious groves of them, belonging to the honourable, my noble friend, the late Sir Adam Brown, of Bechworth-castle), from Box-hill, might, without the least vio- lence to his imagination, easily fancy himself transported into some new or enchanted country ; for, if in any spot in England, Hic ver assiduum, atque alienis mensibus estas. Vinci. ‘Tis here Eternal spring and summer all the year.” Mr. Pennant says the yew is to be found wild upon the hills that bound the waters of the Winander, and on the face of many pre- cipices of different places in this kingdom. Mr. Lightfoot says, that it is found here and there in the Highlands of Scotland in a truly wild state; and that at Glenure, near Glen- creran, in Upper Lorn, there are the remains of an old wood of yew. In some parts of Buckinghamshire, it comes up in great abundance from the berries spon- taneously. YEW. 299 In Ireland it was evidently, says Mr. Tem- pleton, very plentiful in former times, being at present common in a fossil state; but it is not now found there, except in cultivation. Ceesar mentions the yew as very common in Gaul and Germany, and it has been found in North America and Japan. Its natural situation is in mountainous woods, or more particularly the clefts of high calcareous mountains. We do not remember a single instance of having met with any young yew-trees being planted in churchyards ; and, as many of the old ones are fast approaching to the age of Methusalem, we cannot expect to retain them many ages longer. We shall, therefore, notice some of the most celebrated that are now in existence, and hope soon to be able to record the planting of others; for although we ac- knowledge there is no actual necessity for these trees occupying a space in the cemetery, yet we have a veneration for the old customs of our ancestors, when they are void of harm, and stripped of superstition ; and it must be confessed that no other tree is so well calcu- lated to cast that solemnity over the burial- sround as the tree we have ever been accustomed to behold in this situation. The yew-tree may be safely transplanted at any 300 SYLVA FLORIFERA. moderate age, and although it is not of very quick growth, it arrives at a great bulk, and endures perhaps as long as any tree known. In the church-yard of Aldworth, in Berk- shire, is a yew-tree of prodigious bulk, the trunk measuring nine yards in circumference at upwards of four feet from the ground. The shape is very regular, of an urn-like form ; the branches spread to a considerable distance, and rise to a great height. All re- collection of its age is entirely lost. There is one of an extraordinary size at Petersham : and another at Lord Newberry’s, in the old palace garden at Richmond, plant- ed three days before the birth of Queen Elizabeth. Mr. Lyson mentions one in the church- yard at Totteridge, the girth of which, at three feet from the ground, is twenty-six feet: and another in Woodford churchyard, which girths at the same height eleven feet nine inches ; and at four feet and a half from the ground, fourteen feet three inches. The spread of its boughs forms a circumference of about one hundred and eighty feet. Evelyn notices a yew-tree in the church- yard of Crowhurst, in Surry, which was ten yards in compass. “ Another in Braburne churchyard, not far from Scotshall, in Kent, YEW. 301 which being fifty-eight feet eleven inches in circumference, will bear near twenty feet in diameter : not to mention the goodly planks, and other considerable pieces of squared and clear timber, which had been hewed and sawn out of some of the arms only torn from it by impetuous winds. Such another mon- ster is also to be seen in Sutton churchyard, near Winchester.” Several fine old trees are to be seen on some sandy rocks about two miles from Withyam, and five from Tunbridge. Near the church at Hedson, in Bucks, is a fine growing yew-tree, which measures twenty-seven feet in circumference. There are other large trees on the chalk hills of the same county ; and a shady walk of them in the garden of Bradenham-house, near West iste: the branches of which would make excellent bows. There is a large yew-tree standing in the churchyard at Henfield, in Sussex, whose extending branches cast a thick shade over all the graves in the angle in which it stands. This part of the burial ground is fenced with a holly-hedge, that adds considerably to the gloom of the spot. The author, when at school in that village, was induced to join five other boys, all about 302 SYLVA FILORIFERA. from ten to twelve years of age, in a frolic that might have created the greatest alarm, and strongly caused a belief that spectres did arise from the grave and walk the earth in embodied shapes. We all slept in the same room; and as the weather was hot, and the moon shining bright, it was proposed that we should descend into the yard for the pur- pose of getting some water to drink. When there, the beauty of the night tempted one of the party to propose arun. This was in- stantly agreed to, as well as the leaving our night-clothes in the school-room. The fore- most boy bent his course through some fields to the churchyard, where we all followed in a state of nature. It was then proposed that we should show our courage by running round the church separately; and as the moon then shone bright, every object was as visible as in day, excepting under the yew-tree, where we had appointed our resting-place ; but whilst dancing over the graves, to reach the place, our attention was suddenly arrested by a figure rising slowly from the earth, which fixed us all to the spot before we reached the shade which darkened the quarter where the spectre stood, and which our first fright magnified into a monster. It became erect and motionless, with eyes fixed on us, 17 YEW. 803 who were also in a state bordering on_petri- faction, until the boldest of our party pro- posed, in a whisper, that we should take hands and go to the spot to see what it was that stood in our way: but the moment we advanced, the object darted from the shade towards the path, where we followed it, and soon recognized the figure of a well-known smuggler, who kept an inn in the village. His fears gave wings to his heels, yet we overtook him, and seizing him by the frock, soon convinced the affrighted Boniface that we had not yet been under ground. He very properly reprimanded us, and told us that he had really imagined that we had come from the graves, but added that such another frolic would be the death of us all. However, if we would go back to the yew-tree, he would give us something to prevent catching cold. Here he produced a small cask of Hollands gin which had been hid in the hedge, and after making a hole with a gimblet, and putting in a quill which he carried with it, we all sucked out of the cask, making him promise never to divulge whom he had seen, and which, for his own sake, he kept sacred. We all returned to our chamber, slept soundly, caught no cold, and never after heard a ghost 304 SYLVA FLORIFERA. story, but we thought of the Henfield yew- tree. There is a yew-tree in Martley churchyard, Worcestershire, about twelve yards in circum- ference. In the churchyard at Ashill, in Somersetshire, are two very large yew-trees, one fifteen feet round, with a vast spread of branches, extending N. and S. fifty-six feet. The other divides into three large trunks just above the ground, but many of the branches are decayed. Two trees are now growing on the hill above Fountain’s Abbey, near Ripton, which, in 1770, measured. in circumference from thirteen feet to twenty- six feet six inches. At Mill Hill, Hendon, in Middlesex, are four beautiful yew-trees, which, in 1797, measured from seven to nine feet each in circumference. In the churchyard. at Aberystwith, are eleven yew-trees, the. largest twenty-four feet, and the smallest eleven and. a half in circumference. Mr. Pennant mentions one in Fontingal churchyard, in the Highlands of. Scotland, the ruins of which measured fifty-six feet and a half in circumference. In Ireland, there is a yew-tree at Mucrus Abbey, having one great stem, two feet in diameter, and fourteen feet high, with a vast YEW. 405 head of branches spreading on every side, and filling the area of the cloisters. Mr. White says, in his history of Selborne, “ In the churchyard of this village is a yew-tree, whose aspect bespeaks it to be of a great age: the body is squat, short, and thick, and mea- sures twenty-three feet in the girth, support- ing a head of suitable extent to its bulk. This is a male tree, which in the spring sheds clouds of dust, and fills the atmosphere around with its farina. As far as we have been able to observe, the male trees become much larger than’ the females ; and most of the yew-trees in the churchyards of this neighbourhood are males; but this,” says Mr. White, “ must have been matter of mere accident, since men, when they first planted yews, little dreamed that there were sexes in trees.” But we find quite the contrary to this in all the old au- thors on plants, who speak of male and female trees as familiarly as at the present time, although they had not defined the principles by which vegetables propagated their species. Pliny observes,that when the male trees of the date-bearing palms are cut down, the female trees become widows, and bear no more fruit. The Latin name of this tree, TJ'aavus, is de- rived from the Greek T#.; (arrangement), be- cause the leaves are arranged on the branches VOL. II. > 4 306 SYLVA FLORIFERA. hike the teeth of'a comb. Some etymologists consider it to have been derived from roZov (a bow or arrow). Pliny says, that according to some, the ¢oaica, or poison, used for arrows, was called tavica, from this tree; but these poisons were so named from 7éZo. Others derive it from faxo, in the sense of reprehendo, culpo: this bemg a poisonous tree. The yew is easily propagated from seed, which should be sown in the autumn, as soon as ripe, without being cleared from the pulp. The soil should be fresh and undunged, and the situation shady; and the seed should be covered about half an inch thick with earth. The bed must be kept free from weeds, and moistened by watering. In two years the plants should be removed into other beds, and planted in rows about a foot asunder. The yew may likewise be increased by cuttings of one or two years’ growth, planted in a shady border, at the beginning of April, or the end of August. No tree bears trans- planting, when old, better than the yew; so that hedges of a considerable height may be formed of it where it is desirable to shut out walks, or hide objects in the shrubbery. Halifax, in Yorkshire, owes both its name and importance to this tree, if we may credit a story related by Camden, who tells us, that YEW. 307 it was formerly a despicable village called Hauton ; but that the numerous pilgrimages made to that place, and the great and rich oblations which the superstitious left behind them at the sacred yew-tree, caused the rise of this town. The story relates, that an amorous priest falling in love with a pretty maid, who refused his addresses, cut off her head ; which being hung upon a yew-tree till it was rotten, the tree became so sacred, not only whilst the virgin’s head hung on it, but as long as the tree itself lasted, that the people went in pilgrimage to it, plucking and _bear- ing away branches of it, as a holy relic, whilst there remained any of the trunk, per- suading themselves that the small fine veins and filaments resembling hairs, between the bark and the body of the tree, were the hairs of the virgin. The name of Halifax imports holy hair. The timber of this tree is employed by the cabinet-makers and inlayers, and was formerly in great repute for the cogs of mills, axle-trees, and the bodies of lutes, theorboes, and other musical instruments. Mr. Boutcher asserts, upon his own experience, that the wooden parts of a bedstead of yew will not be ap- proached by bugs. > ae 309 ADDENDA. BUTCHER’S BROOM. — RUSCUS. Natural order, Samentacee. Asparagi, Juss. A genus of the Diecia Syngenesia class. “* Where’er we gaze, above, around, below, What various tints, what magic charms, are found!” Byron. ** —easie things, that may be got at will, Most sorts of men doe set but little store.” SPENCER. Tuts singular and beautiful evergreen shrub, that embellishes our native thickets, deserves a more frequent situation in ornamental shrub- beries. It seldom exceeds three feet in height, and therefore is particularly calculated to clothe the foreground of these plantations, and to intermix with the mezereon, the la- vender, and other diminutive shrubs, where the rich blue green of its stiff and sharp- pointed leaves at all times forms a happy con- trast : and which are no less gay than curious x 3 310 SYLVA FLORIFERA. [ ADDEND. during the winter months, when its bright scarlet fruit appears placed on the centre of the upper surface of the leaf, in a manner different from any other native plant we possess. The flowers appear in March and April ; they are of a diminutive size, and of a greenish white colour, forming a small star on the leaf when expanded. But, on close examination, the flowers will be found not to grow out of the leaf, but ona pedicle from the bosom of it, which is immersed beneath the outer coat, whence it may with ease be dissected. The ancients considered this plant a spe- cies of myrtle, as its Greek name indicates, odumvecivy, meaning prickly myrtle; and Pliny tells us, that the Latin name in his time was Chamemyrsine and Oxymyrsine. In French it is named Hous Frelon, and Petit Houa, little holly; and in English it is frequently called Knee- holm, Kneeholly, and Kneehulver. The name of Butcher’s Broom was given to it from the custom of binding it into besoms for sweeping butchers’ blocks, and defending their meat from flies. M. Jussieu ranges it in the family Asparagi; and the young shoots, which spear out of the ground in a similar manner, were formerly gathered and eaten like asparagus. ADDEND. | BUTCHER'S BROOM. 311 Gerard tells us, that it formerly grew upon Hampstead-heath, and it may still be found in many places in the southern and midland counties of this country ; but it will not thrive in northern countries, nor will it bear the winter of Sweden. _ It is also anative of Asia and Africa, and was in ancient times greatly esteemed for its me- dicinal qualities, the root being recommended as an aperient and diuretic in dropsies, urinary obstructions, and nephritic cases. Dioscorides highly extols its deobstruent and diuretic powers. Riverius relates a case of dropsy successfully treated by a decoction of the roots. Bauchin and several other writers give strong cases of its effects in dropsy ; but it is in the early stage of dropsy that this medicine is of the most value. Ktmuller strongly commends this plant as a valuable remedy in scrophulous tumors and ulcers ; he recommends a drachm of the powdered root to be taken every morning, It is but little used in modern practice ; but may perhaps be again restored to its former celebrity, when some other simples are dis- carded from the Materia Medica. GUM CISTUS.—CISTUS LADANIFERUS. Natural order, Rosacee. Cisti, Juss.’ A genus ‘of the Polyandria' Monogynia class. “ Ye lovely fugitives ! _ Coeval race with man! for man you smile; Why not smile at him too: you share indeed His sudden pass; but not his constant pain.” Younc.’ _ Tue beautiful family of plants comprised under the tribe of Cistus are sufficient to form a separate and interesting work. _ The transient nature of their blossoms ex- tend through their numerous race, from the most minute that creeps the rock, to the tallest shrub that heads their family. None can be found to possess a flower which lives to see a second sun. But as they have a great profusion of fower-buds, this imperfection is the less regretted ; and we find them emble- matical of popular favour, smiling on this spray to-day, on that to-morrow, ever chang- ing, ever gay, but no sooner received than withered. But, —-—- * ye painted populace ! Who dwell in fields, and lead ambrosial lives ; 'n morn and evening dew your beauties bathe, And drink the sun, which gives your cheeks to glow ; > ADDEND. | GUM CISTUS. 313 you feel none of the pangs that pain the disappointed man, who survives you to endure the noxious vapour and the blast of winter. _ The gum cistus is scarcely surpassed by any of the vegetable ornaments of the shrubbery, as its flowers are both conspicuous and beau- tiful, from the month of June to the end of August, being of the size of a middling single rose. ‘The petals are of a clear white, with a fine purple spot at their base, and crumpled like the petals of the poppy. The shrub grows to the height of from four to six feet, and spreads to a considerable extent ; the foliage is of a dingy green on the upper sur- face, and whitish on the under side, and remains on the branches all the winter. The whole plant exudes a sweet glutinous sub- stance in warm weather, which has a very strong balsamic scent, and perfumes the air to a great.distance. Mr. Swinburn remarks, that the cistus, which grows in great abundance in the waste lands of Sicily, exhaled so power- ful an effuvium, when the sun had been risen some time, that it quite overcame him. Fable informs us, that the Greeks named this plant Kurj}ce, from a youth named Cistus ; but natu- ralists suppose it to have been so called, because the seed is inclosed in a cis/a, or capsule. 314 SYLVA FLORIFERA. | ADDEND. The Latins adopted the same name, which has been followed by all the European languages. In English, it is frequently called the Rock Rose, because it grows naturally in rocky: soil and situations. The trivial name of Ladani- ferus is added to this species of cistus, because in warm climates it produces a gum or drug called Ladanum; which is a medicine of great antiquity, and considerable utility in pharmacy. Dioscorides relates, that ladanum was for- merly collected by means of goats, which, browsing on these shrubs, returned to their sheds with their beards loaded with a glu- tinous substance collected from the leaves of the cistus, which the peasants combed off, and formed into little lumps. Tournefort tells us, that the common way of gathering the ladanum, when he was in the Levant, was by brushing it off the leaves with a sort of whip, composed of many lashes, or straps, to which it adhered ; and from these it was taken off with knives, and formed into little cakes. Bellonius also notices, that it is collected by slightly brushing the shrub, in the heat of summer, with a kind of rake, having several straps or thongs of leather fixed to it, instead of teeth. ADDEND. | GUM CISTUS. 315 There are two sorts of ladanum in the shops. The best, which is very rare, is in dark-coloured masses, of the consistency of a soft plaster, which becomes still softer on being handled. The other is in long rolls, coiled up, and much harder than the pre- ceding, and not so dark. The first has com- monly a small, and the last a very large ad- mixture of fine sand, blown upon the juice from the sandy soil where it is found. - The best ladanum is brought from Candia and other places in the Archipelago; where the perfume of this drug is so greatly esteemed, that both the Greek and Turkish ladies carry little balls of it to smell to: the fume of it is said to comfort the brain. Outwardly applied, it strengthens the stomach, and stays vomit- ing ; and it is said to be an excellent balsamic in dysenteries and hoarseness. Dale says, it mollifies, digests, maturates, and attenuates ; and that, externally applied, it softens, and is anodyne, and good for the toothache, heartburn, pains of the stomach, and hysteric fits. The chief use of ladanum in modern practice is in fuming, its fragrant smell having made it a constant ingredient in such preparations. Sometimes it is used in troches; and in the Paris Pharmacopeeia, there is a pectoral troche in which there is a 316 SYLVA FLORIFERA. | ADDEND. good quantity of ladanum, with musk and amber. ‘The ancients steeped the flowers of the cistus in their wines that had become tart, to correct the effects of their acidity; and this resinous union, nauseous as it may appear to us, is still liked by the natives throughout the Peloponnesus, who continue to mix resin to correct the newness of their wine, and render it fit for immediate consumption. The dedication of the cone of the pine-tree to Bacchus is traced by Chateaubriand, with some plausibility, to this custom. | At what period the gum cistus was. first cultivated in England is uncertain. In 1568, Turner says, “ I haue sene it in Italy in cer- taine gardines, and ones in Englande, in my lordes gardine at Sion.” It grows spontaneously on the hills in Spain and Portugal; but they do not collect the ladanum in these countries. The gum cistus flourishes best in a shel- tered and warm situation, and thrives well on the sea coast, when not too much exposed to the cutting winds. It is propagated by seeds, and also from cuttings. m - ee a —iaialiinale 6 iene oo Sane or" ; ae — a ADDENDA ro raz LARCH: FROM THE OBSERVATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS OF HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF ATHOLL. THE introduction of this most valuable tree ito Scotland, at least into the county of Perth, took place in the year 1738; when a highland gentleman (Mr. Menzies, of Glen- lyon, Perthshire), brought a few small plants from London, his servant carrying them on horseback on the top of his portmanteau. Some of these plants, says his Grace, he left at Monzie, near Crieff, some at Dunkeld, and the remainder he carried home ; where some have been cut, within these few years, of a great size. The four left at Monzie are in full vigour; the largest, nearly twelve feet in circumference, at three feet and a half above the ground. Those left at Dunkeld are also in full vigour. Some were placed in a green- house, but not thriving, were turned out ; one of which is about twelve feet in girth, at three feet and a half above the ground, and is com- puted to contain four loads of solid timber, or two hundred feet. The largest measured, in 1819, eighty-nine feet in height. At one foot 4 318 SYLVA FLORIFERA. | ADDEND- from the ground, it girthed seventeen feet eight inches; at three feet, twelve feet seven inches; at ten feet, ten feet four inches; at twenty feet, nine feet seven inches; at forty feet, seven feet eleven inches ; at sixty feet, four feet eight inches; at seventy feet, three feet two inches. It contained three hundred feet, or six loads of timber. Some years elapsed after these trees were planted before any more larches were set at Dunkeld. A few, however, were planted at Blair in that interval. But the larches planted between the years 1740 and 1750 were inconsiderable in point of number; for the planting of the rocky mountains round Dunkeld, with a view to their growing wood, which has since been done, would at that time have been treated as a chimerical idea. The Duke of Athol has now been in the habit of cutting larch timber, for different purposes, for thirty years; and as yet, he says, he has met with no instance to induce him to depart from the opinion,—that larch is the most valuable acquisition, in point of useful timber, that has ever been introduced into Scotland ; and he states, that he has cut and used larch from fifty to sixty years’ growth, and that the small larch which were thinned out of plantations, were used for ADDEND. | THE LARCH. 319 upright paling, rails, and hurdles. Those fit for sawing, were sawn through the middle ; the smaller used round, with the bark on, and proved more durable than oak copse-wood of twenty-four years’ growth. Boats built of the larger timber have been found sound, when the ribs, made of oak forty years old, were decayed ; and we find that the Duke has for some years past had all his ferry and fishing-boats built of larch. In mill-work, and especially in mill-axles (where oak only used formerly to be em- ployed), larch has been substituted with the best effect. In cutting up an old decayed mill-wheel, in 1818, those parts of the water- cogs, &c., which had been repaired with larch about twenty years before, though black on the surface, on the hatchet being applied, were found as sound and fresh as when put up. There is not a sufficient quantity of larch, of fit growth, to bring that wood into general use for common purposes ; but such as has been cut and sold, has brought two shillings per foot ; in some instances more. In the year 1812, the Duke of Athol sold a larch-tree, of fifty years’ growth, for twelve guineas ; and at the same time he was offered twenty pounds for another, which he declined cutting. In 1818, he cut twenty larch-trees from a clump 320 SYLVA FLORIFERA. [ ADDEND. where they stood too thick, but left the finest trees standing; for these twenty trees his Grace received one hundred guineas, being at the rate of two shillings per foot. The largest of the twenty trees measured: one hundred and five feet in length, five ‘feet eleven inches in girth, at-four feet from the ground, and contained ninety-four’ square feet of timber. One of the trees measured one hundred and nine feet in length; but being drawn up: by standing too close, did not contain so much solid wood as the first. The lower range of the Grampian Hills, which extend to Dunkeld, are in altitude from one thousand to one thousand seven hundred feet above the level of the sea ; anda range of mountains, one thousand two hun- dred feet above the level of the sea, is now planted with larch. ‘They are in general barren and rocky, composed of mountain schist, slate, and ironstone. Up to the height of twelve hundred feet, larches are planted, and grow luxuriantly ; where the Scotch fir, formerly considered the hardiest tree of the ‘north, cannot rear its head. In considerable tracts where fragments of shivered rocks are strewed so thick that vegetation scarcely meets the eye, the larch puts out as strong and vi- gorous shoots as are to be found in the valleys helow, or in the most sheltered situations. ————— ee ADDEND. | THE LARCH. 32] The Duke of Atholl had planted about a thousand Scotch acres on similar mountains, in.1819, and which has been continued since, placing Scotch fir only in the wet grounds, where larch will not grow, and mixing spruce on the highest points, finding from experi- ence that that tree is next in value to the larch, and thrives in alpine situations almost equally well. ‘We are informed by his Grace, that of all the larch he has had cut, he has never met with one instance of decay. But that he has seen larch cut in wet situations and tilly soil, on low moors, which, at forty years of age, were decaying at the heart. The larch is certainly an alpine tree, and does not thrive in wet situations. The comparative value of larch and Scotch fir is such, that when the Duke of Atholl sold a larch of fifty years’ growth for twelve gui- neas, a fir of the same age, and in the same soil, brought only fifteen shillings. The larch, from being a deciduous tree, is never broken by snow, and very seldom torn by the winds; whilst a heavy fall of snow will destroy, in one night, and break down sometimes more than a third of a fir plantation. VOL. II. Y [ ADDEND. SYLVA FLORIFERA. 322 ‘aAMVAd NHOL “UAITIVAUVA AT £ os 9 "OA *929 “DST ‘syaX as109h) “UOsMIOYT, pue syvag sI9UOISsIUIUIOD ‘Toy Jo a 24} dovIN sty Aq passouzIM Ose Sv 4SI OY} PuL “NT “TT ‘unjukeg ureydey jo souasard ayy ur por} o10M syuaumedxa bi pte = ¢ wTeeresece . ees & "UdAB'T Ou} Ue Zuans ssoq £ yn iiss Oor™.0 1 Jom “OUT SYA UeOHoUIy q gi 43 yy y u a $s I 1 3 oqe 190 b08* a £ oO I POO Coe OH ee Oreo esererees Aap ‘eany OOO T eeteervsee 8 if I PLOSEAT STS SOROS CCR EBACE EDs oF y 218 "yasualy anqnjay *sq7 *sub *yma “- — "Ypsua4s aFpsanp “ZIA § JapUN sv pUuLys alOJaroy} TIM sorads sary} ayy JO IIZu91s sarjejor pu aSes0av oy], eee ee EE ee a a ee ee ea i ce 2 = | yom ‘ourg 0 “61 OS “450-4 0 21 $1 sO1 #6 Om & lt 29 te. Xe 0> <5}| oot | uLvoEUWy re) L r@) t O i re) I Ccceceeecsoeden S01 §s 0 S 9 L ox zZ0 9 9 Aap e3ny § ‘oun WOT “S6I8I D265 S| O08 -T ~ 1 me £9 16 OSs tes elle « eo 9\| *F WeOH ) HK OES ce ie We As a f {01 ig o g¢ i$ gio x so. 9 & | opsmo(s 0 HO | 0-.F1-50 St Z fe is OF. Gy || Ole 16 *—e0r Sih} | neoH ( S @) Go G I eeceseseeseceeovesses eeoecestesseose gee 89 a) (0) ¢ 8 c G &kq z'o 9 ¥$ apisjng . "0 *sq7 "stb -ymal+xo +sq7 *s4b *yma *soyoua *sayour | *sayour ‘ur af || *z0 *sqp || sayour|-u2 af || *sanaz “qySIOM | “yqSTOM “poxge *3104 -ayorq "pa[ddiso 10 “sySrem = || POTPUNY | PorPUNY Haam syyFtam|| *yeou0 2 3 lun ao suayeg eyy, {3asdn sorqy oy, oy} Jo °Z0 JMH ayy yorym || -odxg rs a Zuo] “ANTEND *sjuowiedx | yeaourax 0} sua} | Jo own = |! mogy aup Jo aeq ay} 133je jo orns “yeq oy} JO |/ay} 3e sua} Suaurewis1 -soid ay} sapun =| /pue ay} Woy}! eg oy) a aaa yorqas aapun qySr9 44 ounjyeaing suayeg oui Aq = |jurnaopng ayy|'jo 3y8ta 44 || *suayzeg arp “19quUILy, : Peratovar aanqeaang }] Jo sourysiqg jo suorsuauig || ay) Jo uoydrz0sa¢y 7 ‘Ul aplyf4 uUvrlsénup pup ‘waquay ung vsiy ym pasnduos ‘puvyoog ut ‘1t0HLY fo aynq ay) aonay sry fo ayoysry ayn moLf Surpaar0ad pun ‘BO8I nak ay, Us panX younjooyy 7M pantaoas ‘uaquiry, yotn'T fo ypsuasgy ayz uo apou squaursadxy ayy fo synsay ADDEND. | - "THE LARCH. 323 Results of Experiments, on the transverse Strength of Timber, made at’ Mr. Atkinson’s, Grove End, St. John’s Wood, on Thursday, March 12th, 1818. The pieces were each an inch Square, except No. 3., which was only 8-10ths of an inch in breadth. The numbers in the Table show the weights it would have borne if it had been an inch square; the pieces were supported at each end, and were loaded by putting 5 lbs. at a time into a scale suspended from the middle ; — the distance between the supports 30 inches. — No. 1. |. No. 2. | No. 3. | No. 4. | No, 5, | No. 6. Description of Red Funber. Memel Red wine ns English | English | Riga Timber. | Larch. | ° Satie Oak. | Oak. | Timber. Compar. stiffness — or the weight that bent each piece half an inch 145 lbs. {80 lbs. {93 lbs. |60 lbs. [65 Ibs. {125 lbs, — OO or the weight that 253 Ibs. |295 lbs, |222 lbs. |231 Ibs. |212 lbs. broke each piece SS | | NR, | | ce | Compar. strength— 212 lbs, Compar. extensibi-)) lity — or the space | through which the >/2°25inch,!3 inches, |2°75inch,|2°5 inches|1*4 inch. |1*3 inch, middle had bent nf the time of fracture Sl | ET | SN Weight of a cubic foot of each kind of timber in the }|34 lbs. |40 lbs. |31 lbs. {41 Ibs. {46 lbs. |30 lbs, nearestwhole num- ber Broke | Splin- | Broke | Broke | Splin- | Broke Remarks. short. tered. short. short. tere d |} short. As the strength of small pieces depends much on the position of the annual rings, the pieces were placed as nearly alike in this respect as possible, When the pieces were in the position in which they were broke, the dark lines or portions of the annual rings that appear in the section of a piece were vertical. — From the results exhibited in the preceding Table, it appears very clearly, that Larch is best adapted to resist the force of a body in motion ;—but to leave no doubts in this respect the following experiments were made. Y 2 324. SYLVA FLORIFERA. | ADDEND. Experiments on the Resilience of Timber. The pieces were each an inch in depth, and laid upon supports thirty inches apart. The weight fell between two vertical guides (similar to a pile engine), upon the middle of the piece. Exper. } Timber. Oak, same kind linch. | 7 lbs. 48 inches. | Broke. Be Breadth Height from . No. of |. | Daacrepion | of anes | Weight, A siokiahashe Effects. Piece. Weight fell. ee ‘ee hice as No. 4. abcde Fae dicta gt i linch. | 71bs. | 48 do. {No effect. as No. 2. The same hadenaearcaleepaasseseds| 540 ides -» No effect. The same ceedccccacee|sseccce eseee} «60 do. Set to aslight curve. TC TRRIRS ii a sesceceeesee| -66 do, |Alittlemorecurved. Tiketnagmey 0-5 | CIR are» ae. ; Cusvedt ebont a inch. The same, convex »¢ Curved the con. i eee e|ee@eeeeeeeses 72 do. side upwards trary way. The GAG 0) to Meade cxenasin 14 lbs. 42 do. Broke. No. 9. | Larch, same rR O08 inch. | 7 Ibs. }| 48 do. No effect. as No. 3. The same @eece aeccene|eeeeoneseces 54 do. ‘Broke. No.10.}Oak, same kind) | , inch. | 7 Ibs. 48 do. |No effect. » as No. 5. The same LER: RMS, CRE. Sabbaths 54 do. Broke. No.11.|English Oak linch. | 7 lbs, 54 do. |No effect. HG SATIC: whit a pandvadnckealesoc baie oinisip 60 do. Broke. No. 11 was a dark-coloured and apparently very strong piece of wood ; specific gravity 0.872 or 544 Ibs. per cubic foot.* On the whole, then, it appears, that “arch is superior to oak in stiffness, in strength, and in the power of resisting a body in motion (called resilience): and it ig inferior to Memel or Riga timber in stiffness only. I am, Sir, yours, &c. THOMAS TREDGOLD. Grove End, March 16, 1818. * These experiments were made in the presence of His Grace the Duke of Atholl, Lord Prudhoe, Lord James Murray, John Deas Thomson, Esq., William Adair, Esq., Mr. Geo. Bullock, and Mr. Atkinson, architect to the Ordnance. 10 oe ee : INDEX. AcaciA, i. 39. By whom introduced, 42. Use of the timber, 44. Where to be planted, 45. How propagated, 47. Age, old, the emblem of, i. 259. Alder, i. 60. Its ancient use, 61. Where to be planted, 63. 65. Use of the timber, 64.66. Medicinal properties, 67. How propagated, 68. Alexander the Great, anecdote of, ii. 262. America, the importance of the discovery, ii. 64. Its effect on the system of botany, i. 41. Amiability, the emblem of, i. 309. Apollo’s temple by whom robbed, i. 110. Arbor vite, i. 51. Great quantity at Pére la Chaise, 54. Use of the wood, 56. Medicinal properties, 57. How propa- gated, 58. Arbutus, i. 69. Its ancient name, 70. Its flowers adapted to the season, 73. Soil, 74. How propagated, 75. 77. Archers, ancient, ii. 279. Ash, i. 79. Fabulous account of, 80. Used for spears, 74, Serpents will not approach it, 82. Superstition respecting the ash, 83. Situation, 84. Profit of the wood, 86. Of great size, 89. Used for fodder, 91. How propagated, 95. —— weeping, I. 95. manna, i. 96. ‘Aspen, i. 102. Its tremulous nature accounted for, id. Superstition respecting, 103. Use of the timber, 104. Atholl, the Duke of, his plantation of larch, ii. 17. x¥ 3 ; 326 INDEX. Bachelor, the origin of the name of, i. 114. Bay, i. 106. Why named laurus, 107. Superstition respect- ing, 108. Thought to purify the air, 76. Why named nobilis, 113. Used to crown poets, 114. Its early use in England, 116. «—— tree at Virgil’s tomb, 117. Situation, 118. How pro- pagated, 121. Beauty, the emblem of, ii. 149. Birch, i. 123. Origin of the name, 124. ‘Natural climate, 125. Ancient use of the bark, 126. Reflections eaused by this tree, 128. Situation and use of the timber, 131. ——- wine, 130. Bird cherry, i. 134. Use of the fruit, 136. Bladder senna, i. 138. Good to fatten sheep, 140. Mesiemal quality, 2b. Native soil, 141. Bond of love, the emblem of, i. 294. Botany, the pleasure of this study, i. 72. 271. Box-tree, i. 144. Native soil, 145. Use of the wood, 146. Used to colour hair, 148. Soil and situation, 150. . Broom, i. 151. Situation, 153. Uses of, 156. Medicinal properties, 159. Use in veneering, 160. Butcher’s broom, ii. 309. Natural history of, 310. Qualities, 311. | Cassine, evergreen, i. 291. Cedar of Lebanon, i. 162. Planted by the Jews, 164. An- tiquity of its use, 165, Durability of, 167. Used to pre- serve writings, 76. Character of, 168. When introduced, 169. Remaining at Libanus, 172. Natural history of, 175. Thought to purify the air, and inspire religious thoughts, 1776. Soil and situation, 20. Chaste love, the emblem of, i. 41. Churches, why decorated with holly at Christmas, i, 281. Clematis. See Virgin’s Bower. Clipping of trees, by whom introduced, i. 302. , by whom ridiculed, i. 304, Cornel, i. 179. Ancient and modern use of, 182.184, Si- tuation, 185. Cormelian cherry, i. 185. The fruit described, 187. INDEX. 327 Coquetry, the emblem of, ii. 75. Cypress, i. 188. Fabulous account of, 189. Why planted by the Turks, 190. Singular use of a cypress-tree, 191. Native soil and durability, 192. Ancient use in building ships, 194. Where first noticed in England, 196. Where to be planted, 199.201. How propagated, 203. Danger, the emblem of, ii. 207. Daphnephoria, origin of the festival, i. 111. Darius, anecdote of, i. 227. Diana, the origin of her temple, i. 229. Dogwood, i. 179. Edda of Woden, allegory from, i. 81. Eglantine, ii. 169. Elegance, the emblem of, i. 48. Elm, i. 205. Thought not to be a native, 207. Ancient use of, 209. Why planted in the church-yards of France, 211. Forms the principal boulevards of France and Spain, 211. Great size of, 213. 216. When planted in St. James’s Park, 215. Beauty of, 216. Varieties of, 219. Use of the tim- ber, 220. Evaporation of leaves, i. 98. Evergreens, remarks on planting, i. 198. Fashion, her influence in planting, ii. 53. Fir, i. 225. Natural history of, 226. To whom dedicated, 228. 231. Native soil, 233. Why named fir, 234. Not to be pruned, 236. Situation, 237. Use of the timber, id. Good for fodder, 239. ae GlVEr, 1. Sa, — hemlock, i. 246. — balm of Gilead, i. 245. —~ spruce, ii. 211. Flowers, how doubled, i. 258. , the delight of all ages, i. 10. Banish grief, 9. , the drawing of, recommended as the proper study for females, i. 11. Forsaken, the, the emblem of, ii. 44. Foresight, the emblem of, i. 280. Friendship, the emblem of, i. 326. y 4 32 INDEX. Furze, i. 274. Native climate, 248. Planted for effect, 249, Its use, 251. Game-laws, remarks on, i. 253. Gardens, their delight, i. 10. of the ancients, i. 12. of Babylon, i. 13. of England, the ancient, i. 16. Gardening, the modern taste introduced, i. 17. German flutes, observations on, i. 148. Gorse, i. 247. Gray’s Inn Gardens, by whom planted, i. 214, Groves, sacred, i. 231. Guelder rose, i. 256. Derivation of the name, 258. Soil, ib. Situation, 26. Gum cistus, il, 312. Natural history of, 313. Situation, 316. Halifax, why so named, ii. 306. Hawthorn, i. 260. Ancient use of the flowers, 261. Super- stition respecting, 263. Use in rural economy, 268. Seeds how to be sown, 2b. Where to be planted, 270. 272. with double flowers, i. 267. with yellow berries, i. 270, Heath, i. 274. Situation of, 276. Species, 277. Use in do- mestic economy, 278. Holly, i. 280. Why used to decorate churches, 281. Deriv- ation of the name, 282. Superstition respecting, 7b. Va- rieties of, 285. Recommended for hedges, 286. Situation and soil, 288. Use of the wood, 289. Natural history, and how propagated, 25. Honey, how procured in ancient times, i, 158. Honey-dew, i. 98. Honey-suckle, i. 293. Derivation of the name, 295. Varie- ties of, 297. Soil and situation, 298. Hope, the emblem of, i. 261. Hornbeam, i. 301. Soil and situation, 306. Hospitality, the emblem of, 281. Ivy, i. 323. Greatly regarded by the ancients, 324. neds of, by whom worn, 324. 326. Its supposed antipathy to the vine accounted for, 328, INDEX. 329 Ivy, not a parasitical plant, 330. Its effects on timber, 331. ' On houses, 332. Natural history, 334. How propagated, 336. Use of the root, 335. Jasmine, i. 309. Tuscan tale respecting, 311. Recommended for cottage-gardens, 315. How propagated, ib. yellow, when introduced, i. 316. Judas-tree, i. 318. Description of, 320. How propagated, 321. Laburnum, ii. 1. Where to be planted, 4. Use of the wood, 5. 7. Hares and rabbits, their fondness for, 6. How propagated, 7. Ladanum, how obtained, ii. 314. Larch, ii. 8: Esteemed by the ancients, 9. Great size of a tree seen at Rome, 10. Native place, 11. Fabulous origin of, 7b. Natural history of, 13. When first planted in this - country, 14. The planting encouraged, 16. Frigate built _ of, 17. 19. Extensive plantations of, 17. 317. Its _ beauty in furniture, 18. Its increase, 20. It resists the flames, 10, 22. Durability, 23. Used by artists, 25. Improves the ground, 27. Size and value of those cut by the Duke of Atholl, 319. At what altitude planted in Scot- land, 320. Comparative value with the Scotch fir, 321, Ex- periments on the strength of the timber, 323. Laurel, ii. 28. When known in Europe, 29, Native place, 32. Poisonous quality, 33. A hill planted with, 35. How propagated, 36. Medicinal properties, 37, , of great size at Stanmer, ii. 36. Laurestine, ii. 39. Native place, 40. Where to be planted, 41. Lilac, ii. 43. Hardy nature, 45, Why named syringa, 46. When introduced into Europe, 45, Where to be planted, 50. How propagated, 52. ——, Persian, ii. 50. ——, Chinese, ii. 51. Lime or linden, ii. 53. The bark used to write on, 54, Na- tive soil, 55. Great size of, 57. Use of the timber, 59. How propagated, 63. Louis XIV,, anecdote of, i. 120. 330 INDEX. Love, the emblem of, ii. 88. Magnolia, ii. 64. Why so named, 67. Description of, 65. When introduced, 67. Fine trees at Goodwood, 68. Spe- cies of, 69. Manna-ash, where indigenous, i. 96. ' Manna, its nature, i. 97. How gathered, 99. Why so called, 101. Maple, ii. 71. ‘The wood esteemed by the ancients, 72. May-day, festival of, i. 264. Melancholy, the emblem of, ii. 261. Memory, the emblem of, ii. 228. Mezereon, ii. 75. Native place, 77. Medicinal properties, 80. Mock orange, li. 228. Mountain-ash, ii. 83. Ancient use of, 84. Use of the fruit, 86. Myrtle, ii. 88. Ancient use of, 89. Wreath of, when first worn, 91. Used as spice, 92. Native climate, 92. Fabu- lous account of, 88. 92. When introduced, 94. Of great age in England, 95. Loves the sea air, 96. Soil and propagation, 98. Nectary of flowers, its use, i. 295. Nettle, greatly esteemed in Egypt, i. 55. Ornamental plantations, their advantage, ii. 110. Osier, ii. 274. Propagation and situation, 275. Parks, antiquity of, i. 18. | Passion-flower, ii. 100. Superstition respecting, 101. How propagated, 106. Its fruit, 25. Pere la Chaise, noticed, i. 199., and ii. 159. Perfumes, noxious to animals, i. 167. Peter the Great, anecdote of, i. 286. Pheasants, their native place, 1. 139. Pine, ii. 108. Prospers in poor soil, 109. ——, Weymouth, when introduced, ii. 111. Where to be planted for ornament, 112. Law made respecting, 7b. Soil, 113. Rha Pine garlands, to whom awarded, i. 230. Plane, ii. 114. Regarded by the ancients, 115. Great size of, 117. When introduced, 119. Not subject to blight, 121. Endures the smoke of London, 122. Soil, 123. Plantations, remarks on, i. 20. 35. ————— of larch, ii. 17. Planting commendable, ii. 213. Plants, native, love of, i. 8. growing in singular situations, i. 331. their various means of climbing, i. 25. Pleasure-gardens, beneficial to health, i. 2. Poet-laureat, why so called, i. 114. Poplar, ii. 124. Garlands of, by whom worn, 125. Native soil, 127. Po, or Lombardy, when introduced, 129. Planted by the peasants in Naples, 130. Use of the wood, 131. Quick growth, 133. Portugal broom, i. 155. ——— laurel, ii. 136. Fruit good for ‘pheasants, 138, Hardy nature, 140. How propagated, 70. Privet, ii. 142. Situation, 143.147. Use of the fruit, 144, 146, 147. Thrives in the smoke of London, 143. Profit obtained by planting ash-trees, i. 86. a re - oaks, i. 88 —————_______-—-- firs, i. 238. 245. Ptolemy Philopater, anecdote of, i. 327. Quicksets, i. 268. Rhododendron, ii. 202. Poisons honey, 203. When intro- duced, 204. How propagated, 207. Richard the Second, anecdote of, ii. 281. Rogation-week, why so called, i. 133. Rose, ii. 148. Noticed by oriental poets, 152. Otto of, how discovered, 153. Fabulous account of, 154, Etymology of its name, 157. Why used as a symbol of silence, 156, Greatly used by the ancients, 157. Planted on graves, 158. Used in religious worship, 161. Consecrated rose sent to Henry the Eighth, 162. Superstition respecting, 164. Use in floral language, 166. Formerly precious in France, 167. Number of varieties, 168. Native species, 169. 332 INDEX. Rose, dog, why so named, ii. 170. Used to graft on, 171. —— white, 173. Why used by the house of York, 2d. Province, 177. Native place, 178. When introduced, 179. Varieties of, 2b. . —— moss, 180. Poetical account of, 182. How propagated, 184. 4 hundred-leaved, 184. Native place, 485. Varieties of, 186. " cinnamon, or May rose, 187. musk, 188. — yellow, 189. =— China, 192. Lady Banks’s, 194. Rose-trees, observations on planting, 195. Mode of retarding the flowers, 196. Kinds recommended for forcing, 197. Rose, its medicinal properties, ii. 200. ——, blight and insects that injure these plants, 198. Rose, acacia, i. 48. How propagated, 50. Sacred woods of the ancients, i. 181. Sea-coast, what trees recommended for, i. 84. Shrubbery, ii. 251. Origin of, i. 1. Its utility, 2. Remarks _ on planting, 26. _How embellished, 29. Silver fir, i. 241. “When introduced, 242. Soil, 243. Solitude, the emblem of, i. 275. Sorrow, the emblem of, i. 188., and ii. 288. Spanish broom, i. 153. Spirea frutex, ii. 208. Spruce fir, ii. 211. Early cultivation, 212. Purifies the air, 215. —— American, ii. 215. ———= beer, how made, ii. 216. Strawberry tree. See Arbutus. Sumach, ii. 217. When introduced, 218. How propagated, 294. Sweet briar, ii. 169. Swiss peasants, their summer-emigration, i. 158. Sycamore, ii. 221. Noticed by Chaucer, 223. The sap used in beer, 224. Of great size, 225. How propagated, 226. INDEX. 983 Syringa, ii. 228. Domestic use of, 229. Situation, 230. How propagated, 232. Tamarisk, ii. 247. Superstition respecting, 249. Situation, 251. Terrific, the general love of, i. 4. Tiberius, his dread of lightning, i. 108. Traveller's joy, ii. 233. Trees, distinguish remarkable spots, i. 171. Correct a putrid air, 195. Trumpet-flower, ii. 236. Tulip-tree, ii. 240. Great size of, 241. When introduced, 243. Under the rose, origin of the saying, ii. 156. Versailles, the garden of, 302. Vessels or boats, of what anciently composed, i. 61. ii. 269. Villa, why so called, i. 46. Virgil, pretended dream of his mother, i. 117. Virgin’s bower, ii. 257. How propagated, 259. Situation, 260. wild, ii, 233. Virginian creeper, ii. 253. Medicinal properties, 256. Voluptuous love, the emblem of, ii. 182. White thorn, i. 260. Willow, ii. 261. Species of, 267. Ancient use of, 2b. Uti- lity of, 272. ———, weeping, by whom introduced, ii. 263. Situation, 265. | » natural history of, 277. —— boats of great antiquity, ii. 269. Wood, when sold by weight, ii. 212. Woodbine. See Honey-suckle. Yew, ii. 279. Why planted in church-yards, 282. 285. Laws respecting this wood, 284. Why considered a funeral tree, 286. Poisonous nature, 290. Fatal to cattle, 293. Natural history, 297. Where found wild, 7d. Remarkable yew-trees, 300. Derivation of the name, 305. How pro- pagated, 306. Use of the wood, 307. THE END. . . ‘ re ee Ae * Pyar ¥ re 7, BY tee he m3 & oO te ee ee i at : . +) * ' ay ere * ‘S yr § - « j ohy Ls oo ¥ ‘ we er een . ; - « 7 ard : L » ey * ‘ : =) xe we ‘ » <3 a 7 : Pest . 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