as determined in 1789: but the latter is now too obsolete to be very useful to the tyro. In our own language the only work that can be consulted upon the subject with advantage is the Flòra Scótica of Professor Hooker, in which the characters of the natural orders of Scottish plants are concisely indicated by Mr. Lindley.

[The foregoing forms a part of the introduction to our Encyclopædia of Plants, Part II., Natural System. In our next Number we shall proceed to give a general view of the divisions and subdivisions of vegetables according to this system, in doing which we shall give figures of all the principal genera, and more especially of those species which are of most usual occurrence in Britain, in order to render this superior mode of studying botany as easily and universally understood as possible.]

(To be continued.)

ART. VIII. The principal Forest Trees of Europe, considered as Elements of Landscape. By J. G. STRUTT.

THERE is no defect so common in painted or engraved landscapes, as the want of distinctive character in the representations of trees. With the exception of Constable, Nasmyth, Robson, Strutt, and a few others, most artists appear to content themselves with producing variations of a few general and vague forms of masses of foliage, trunks, branches, and spray: it seems to be enough for them to produce a tree, without attempting to represent any particular species; or considering that to give a true idea of nature, the spectator ought to be able to distinguish the sort of tree in the picture, with the same facility with which he distinguishes it in the reality. Why trees should not be represented with the same truth and fidelity as animals, buildings, or other objects, there can be no good reason assigned; and the only way of accounting for it is, by the general residence of landscape painters in cities, and the very little attention paid by most of them to natural history as a science. Were this study to enter into the education of the landscape painter, as much as that of general history enters into that of the historical painter, we should not so frequently have to regret, in the works of our first artists, not only violations of truth and nature in the kinds of trees, but in their situations in regard to soil, surface, water, and other trees or plants. A little knowledge of botany would prevent artists from putting spring and autumnal plants in flower or fruit in

the same picture, placing the plants of woods and shady places in open sunshine, and committing a number of similar violations of nature. The combined knowledge of indigenous zoology, geology, and botany, ought to be considered as essential to the landscape painter as it is to the cultivator. It is one object of our Magazine to direct public attention to this subject; and we are happy in having procured the assistance of Mr. Strutt for the tree department. Every reader, who is acquainted with the admirable engravings in this gentleman's Sylva Britannica and Delicia Sylvarum, will know what to expect from so eminent an artist.

The botanical characters of the trees, which will follow Mr. Strutt's pictorial descriptions, will be given chiefly for the sake of beginners in botany; and to show to artists, selfpractising amateurs, as well as professional men, the detailed forms of the leaves, flowers, and smaller parts. To insure the accuracy of these botanical details, they will be looked over by Mr. George Don, too well known as a scientific botanist to require any eulogium here. - Cond.

IT is a beautiful notion of St. Pierre's, and one which has the advantage of being safe from any positive contradiction, that the earth, on its first assumption of form and laws, appeared clothed, with respect to the vegetable creation, not only

in the verdure which has been well styled "her universal robe," but also with trees in every stage of their existence; an idea which Milton has also given us in his exquisite descrip-. tion of the creation :

"Last

Rose, as in dance, the stately trees, and spread

Their branches, hung with copious fruit, or gemm'd
With blossoms; with high woods the hills were crown'd,
With tufts the valleys, and each fountain side;
With borders long the rivers: that earth now

Seem'd like to Heav'n, a seat where gods might dwell,
Or wander with delight, and love to haunt
Her sacred shades."

Leaving, however, for the present, the dryads and hamadryads of such enchanting precincts to the poets who have so well embodied their existence, we shall turn our attention to "the stately trees," and endeavour to ascertain, and to point out, to such of our readers as may be desirous to acquire some knowledge of their varieties and character, with reference to their appearance and effect in landscape, the most striking peculiarities in each species, and the mode best adapted for their delineation. In the course of this disquisition, we shall have occasion to present to the young student in painting, a variety of sketches illustrative of our propositions, given, not from the recorded treasures of the brain, but from a more inexhaustible storehouse; being acquired by diligent study in the living academies of nature, -the groves and the forests of our native country. And here it may be well observed, that no set of rules or examples, drawn from other men's labours, will be sufficient to form an original landscape painter: we can only put the proper implements into the hands of the student, form in him a habit of accurate perception, and introduce him to the objects best adapted for his pencil : it is for him to find his own path for the future, and penetrate into the solitudes and the recesses of the forest, where every thing will be congenial to his pursuit, and where he will not have to complain in the elegant language of Quintilian, -" Quare silvarum amoenitas, et præterlabentia flumina, et inspirantes ramis arborum auræ, volucrumque cantus et ipsa latè circumspiciendi libertas, ad se trahunt; ut mihi remittere potius voluptas ista videatur cogitationem, quam intendere." "Wherefore the sweet tranquillity of the woods, the liquid lapse of murmuring streams,' the soft whisperings of the summer air amid the boughs, the melodies of birds, and the unrestrained freedom that the eye enjoys, all attract the mind to themselves, so that these delights appear to me rather to interrupt than to promote our meditations."

European trees may, by the painter, be divided into four classes: the round-topped, as the oak, chestnut, elm, willow, ash, beech, &c.; the spiry-topped, as the different species of the fir tribe; the shaggy-topped, comprehending those of the pine; and the slender-formed, as the Lombardy poplar and the cypress. In the first of these classes, foremost in dignity and grandeur, the oak stands pre-eminent, and like the lion among beasts, is the undoubted lord of the forest. Beauty, united with strength, characterises all its parts. The leaves, elegant in their outline, are strongly ribbed, and firmly attached to the spray, which, although slim and excursive, is yet bold and determined in its angles, whilst the abrupt and tortuous irregularity of its massive branches, admirably contrasts with the general richness and density of its clustered foliage. Even as a sapling, in its slender gracefulness, it exhibits sufficient firmness and indications of vigour, to predicate the future monarch of the wood; a state, indeed, which it is slow to assume, but which it retains per sæcula longa; and when, at length, it is brought to acknowledge the influence of time, and becomes "bald with dry antiquity," no other production of the forest can be admitted as its rival in

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majestic and venerable decay. The general form of the oak is expansive, luxuriant, and spreading. Its character, both with respect to its whole, and to its larger masses of foliage, is best expressed by the pencil in bold and roundish lines, whether as single trees (fig. 13.), as groups (fig. 14.), or as forming the line of a distant forest (figs. 15, 16.): although

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when growing more closely together, they assume a loftier and less spreading appearance than the more solitary tree, such as Mason has so beautifully described in his Caractacus,"Behold yon oak,

How stern he frowns, and, with his broad brown arms,
Chills the pale plain beneath him."

The sketches (figs. 14, 15, 16.), to which we have just alluded, will more distinctly exemplify our position, exhibiting, in the distinct distances, the same general appearance in the contour of the trees.

But whilst, as an entire object, these curved lines are sufficient to express the general peculiarity of its outline, as well as the larger masses of its foliage, when we come to examine the oak more closely, and in detail, we find that a greater variety of line must be adopted to display its singular proportions, so indicative of energy and boldness. The trunk and limbs (fig. 17.) are characterised by their amazing strength,

and by their comparative shortness and crookedness; and the branches by their numerous contortions and abrupt angles, and by the great variety which they exhibit of straight and of