IT is scarcely necessary to premise, that one of the causes why a greater variety of trees and shrubs is not planted by country gentlemen is, the difficulty of getting the different kinds true to their names; and the almost certainty, when a considerable collection is ordered, of receiving a number of plants of the same species or variety under different names. This is more especially the case under such genera as Magnolia, Cratï¾µgus, Pyrus, Fraxinus, Quercus, Pinus, Populus, Betula, &c. Another evil which the purchasers of trees and shrubs have reason to complain of is, that the names of varieties are very frequently inserted in catalogues as if they were species; in consequence of which, a person intending to have only a few species of a genus which contains a great number might, instead of the few kinds which would have given him a very good idea of the genus, receive only varieties of one species, which can only give him an idea of that species, and no proper idea of the general character of the genus. For example, in the genus Cratï¾µgus, supposing the possessor of a small pleasure-ground can afford room for only six species, and, looking over an extensive catalogue containing seventy or eighty names, he chooses C. arbutifolia, C. caroliniana, C. cerasifera, C. elliptica, C. pyracanthifolia, and C. splendens; how will he be surprised, on seeing these kinds come into leaf, to find that they are all varieties or synonymes of Cratï¾µgus Crusgalli ! Supposing he chooses the following six names, C, laciniata, C. incisa, C. quercifolia, C. Oliveria, C. Celsiana, and C. sibirica; he will be not less surprised at finding them all varieties of the common hawthorn, scarcely distinguishable from one another. Again, in the genus Pinus, at present so popular, suppose the following sorts are ordered from the nurseryman's catalogue, P. rubra, P. horizontalis, P. rigensis, P. altaica, P. intermedia, and P. genevensis; all these, and several others which figure in catalogues as distinct species, he will find nothing more than the common Scotch pine, scarcely one of them differing sufficiently from the species to make it worth cultivating. On the other hand, supposing the proprietor of a small pleasure-ground, who could only afford room for six kinds of Cratï¾µgus, had ordered the following kinds, C. coccinea, C. pyrifolia, C. nigra, C. flava, C. cordata, and C. tanaectifolia; or C. mexieana, C. virginiea, C. heterophylla, C. orientalis, C. apiifolia, and C. Douglasii; he would in either case have a collection of plants very different from each other, very characteristic of the genus, and exhibiting a very interesting variety of forms all referable to the same type; and which would have been obtained at exactly the same price as the others. In like manner, in the case of the genus Pinus, had P. pumilio, P. Inops, P. Laricio, P. Pinea, P. Tï¾µda, and P. Cembra been chosen; plants very different in their appearance, and giving a fair representation of the genus Pinus, would have been obtained, and that for nearly the same price as the half-dozen Scotch pines above mentioned.
