an opportunity of seeing a thorn tree, at Fountainhall, in Haddingtonshire, which the forester, a man of unquestionable veracity, assured us he had, with his own hand, driven down into the earth, with the point of it sharpened, as a stake in a dead hedge, which, to his astonishment, rooted spontaneously, budded, and put forth branches, and became the thriving tree we beheld. The whimsical stake appearance of the stem bore testimony to the fact, as narrated.

It were endless to go through the different species and varieties of the thorn; but we may mention, that the scarlet flowering variety, though its beauty is unaccompanied by that delicious odour which is so gratifying in the common hawthorn, is yet, when covered with its blossoms, one of the most delightful objects that the eye can look upon.

We shall now notice one or two trees, which we, as well as Mr Gilpin, have omitted; but this we shall do as shortly as possible.

The Cypress, Cupressus sempervirens, of which Evelyn says, "If we should reason only from our own experience, even the cypress tree was, but within a few years past, reputed so tender and nice a plant, that it was cultivated with the greatest care, and to be found only among the curious; whereas, we see it now in every garden, rising to as goodly a bulk and stature as most which you shall find in Italy itself; for such I remember to have once seen in his Majesty's gardens at Theobald's, before that princely seat was demolished." Nothing can be more beautiful than this architectural tree, when brought into combination with buildings; and no Italian scene is perfect without its tall spiral form, appearing as if it were but a part of the picturesquely disposed edifices which rise from the middle ground against the distant landscape. We are delighted to see this tree multiplying fast among us. Along with the common cypress, we may mention the Cupressus thyoides, or White Cedar, and the various individuals of the Juniperus.

The Prunus Lauro-cerasus, or Common Laurel, and the Prunus Lusitanica, or Portugal Laurel, are invaluable for giving effect to our groves, by their sparkling glazed leaves, especially in winter. That they grow with us to trees, is proved by the fact, that at Fountainhall there is one, the stem of which measures five feet in girth; and that, in 1817, we measured one at Inverary, which, at three feet from the ground, was eight_feet ten inches round. And then the Laurus nobilis, or Evergreen Bay Tree, which, as Hanbury

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THE LAUREL, HAZEL, AND ELDER.

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one

tells us, grows to thirty feet in height, and two feet in diameter, in this country, and which we have seen hundred feet high in the Isola Bella, in the Lago Maggiore in Italy, is surely not to be despised. It inclines to grow spirally, and has a gay and cheerful green.

The Magnolia grandiflora, or Big Laurel of America, although so delicate in Britain as to require some sheltered position in the home grounds, should not be forgotten. We have seen it of very tolerable size, and in great beauty, covered with its large, splendid, and most odoriferous flowers, at East Sheen, and other places; and were it only to have it as a sample, to remind us that in its native country, the United States of America, it grows to the height of ninety feet, with a stem of two or three feet in diameter, it would be worth while to have specimens of it. We forbear to notice the other trees of this genus, - -all magnificent, and many of them even more hardy than this we have mentioned.

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The Thuya occidentalis, or Arbor Vitæ, is another valuable small evergreen tree. In 1780, an arbor vitæ, at Bargoly, in Galloway, measured five feet four inches in girth. The Orientalis, or Chinese arbor vitæ, is more delicate than the

common.

We shall close our share of this catalogue of trees, with the mention of three more humble individuals. The Hazel, Corylus avelana, which, besides making up a prominent part of many a grove in the happiest manner, and tufting and fringing the sides of many a ravine, often presents us with very picturesque stems and ramifications. Then, when we think of the lovely scenes into which the careless steps of our youth have been led, in search of its nuts, when autumn had begun to brown the points of their clusters, we are bound to it by threads of the most delightful associations with those beloved ones who were the companions of such idle but happy days. Then there is the Elder, the Sambucus nigra, shooting from the wild fence of the village garden, white with flowers, or purple with berries. The elder-whence, when we were boys, we cut those tubes through which we have stealthily and waggishly blown pease, from behind some concealment, at some grave and reverend senior, whom we dared not for our lives to confront. Even in picturesque effect, the elder is often most happily brought into combination with cottages and taller trees. The elder will grow in a higher country than most trees, and may be used for fences, where no other fence-tree or bush would thrive. It makes an excellent nurse to rear up young trees exposed to the sea blast, and it has been so employed, with the happiest effect, in that part of the grounds

at Cullen House recently extended towards the shore of the Moray Firth.

We shall conclude with the Prunus padus, or Bird Cherry Padus, a native of the Scottish woods, which is always a graceful, and often a picturesque tree, and frequently grows to a girth greater than a man can embrace. And there is a foreign and introduced variety, the Prunus Virginiana, or Virginian Padus, which grows to thirty or forty feet high in our woods; the beautiful bright green, glazed, and enduring leaf of which-for it remains green on the branch for the greater part of the winter-renders it a most desirable tree to plant. A tree of this kind was cut down at Hopetoun House, in 1788, which measured three feet ten inches in girth, but we have seen them larger.

SECTION V.

WE have thus endeavoured to mark the principal characteristics of picturesque beauty, in the most common trees we have in England. But to have a more accurate idea of their nice peculiarities and distinctions, we should examine their smaller parts with a little more precision,-their ramification in winter, as well as the mass of foliage which they exhibit in summer.

Their ramification, in part, we have already considered; but it has only been that of the larger boughs which support the foliage, and such as we commonly see under the masses of it when in full leaf. Winter discovers the nicer parts of the ramification, the little tender spray, on which the hanging of the foliage and the peculiar character of the tree so much depend.

The study is certainly useful. It is true it has none of the larger parts of painting for its object, composition, or the massing of light and shade; but we consider the spray as a kind of sylvan anatomy, which is very necessary for those to understand, who wish either to be acquainted with the particular character of each tree, or to represent its general effect with any degree of

exactness.

Nor is it an unpleasing study. There is much variety in the ramification of each species, and much also in that of each individual. We see every where so many elegant lines, so much opposition and rich intersection