Published in July, 1838, price 10l. cloth lettered,
The ARBORETUM FRUTICETUM et BRITANNICUM;
In 8 vols.: four of letter-press, illustrated by above 2500 engravings, and four of octavo and quarto plates.
This work is in three divisions:—
I. The history of the introduction of trees and shrubs into Britain, and the history and geography of the trees and shrubs of temperate climates throughout the world; shewing the trees and shrubs which are already in the country, and those which yet remain to be introduced. This occupies 250 pages of vol. I.
II. A description of all the trees and shrubs, hardy and half-hardy, cultivated in Britain; in which is given their history, geography, uses, propagation, culture, diseases, insects, mosses, lichens, fungi, &c., occupying the remaining part of vol. I. and the whole of vols. II., III., and IV.
III. Portraits of trees of from ten to twelve years’ growth, of which the accompanying figure of the Chilian pine (Araucaria imbricata) may serve as a specimen, growing within ten miles of London, all drawn to the same scale of one inch to four feet, and accompanied by botanical specimens of their winter’s wood, leaves, flowers, and fruit, all drawn to the scale of one-sixth of an inch to a foot. Besides the young trees, there are portraits of full-grown trees of all the more important species, in order to shew the character which they assume when of mature age. Some of these are drawn in foliage, of which a figure of the Cyprus of Mistra, the largest cyprus in the world, is given as a specimen; and others, taken in winter, when divested of their foliage, of which the accompanying figure of the common Beech (Fagus sylvatica) is an illustration. These are drawn to a scale of one inch to twelve feet. This mode of giving portraits of trees and botanical specimens to a fixed scale, has been adopted in “The Arboretum Britannicum” for the first time, and it gives that work a decided superiority over all previous publications on the same subject. This division of the work occupies vols. V., VI., VII., and VIII.
The first four volumes of “The Arboretum” are illustrated with upwards of 2500 engravings, chiefly of botanical specimens, but including also insects, fungi, engravings of the leaves of the natural size of all the species of several genera, portraits of remarkable trees or shrubs (such as Johnson’s willow, the cypress of Soma, &c.); nearly fifty remarkable oaks, above ten remarkable yew trees, the king and queen beeches at Ashridge, and many other remarkable beech trees, remarkable elms, ashes, poplars, pines, firs, &c. &c.; portraits, taken during winter, to shew the effect of the different deciduous trees at that season; landscapes, exhibiting the effect of the particular kinds of trees, when employed by the landscape-gardener, in combination with other trees, or with buildings; ground-plans, shewing the mode of laying out and planting arboretums, fruticetums, cricacetums, rosariums, &c.; diagrams, shewing trellises and other structures for training climbing shrubs, the mode of forming fences of particular shrubs, of making baskets, &c., of willow-rods, of forming surface drains for arboretums, of sawing up timber for sale, as practised in Norway, &c. &c. In short, the work embraces every part of the subject of the study of the hardy trees and shrubs of Britain.
Bayswater, near London, December 1842.