Arboretum

Arboretum, the name given to that part of a garden or park which is reserved for the growth and display of trees. The term, in this restricted sense, was seemingly first so employed in 1838 by J.C. Loudon, in his book upon arboreta and fruit trees. Professor Bayley Balfour, F.R.S., the Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, has described an arboretum as a living collection of species and varieties of trees and shrubs arranged after some definite method—it may be properties, or uses, or some other principle—but usually after that of natural likeness. The plants are intended to be specimens showing the habit of the tree or shrub, and the collection is essentially an educational one. According to another point of view, an arboretum should be constructed with regard to picturesque beauty rather than systematically, although it is admitted that for scientific purposes a systematic arrangement is a sine qua non. In this more general respect, an arboretum or woodland affords shelter, improves local climate, renovates bad soils, conceals objects unpleasing to the eye, heightens the effect of what is agreeable and graceful, and adds value, artistic and other, to the landscape. What Loudon called the “gardenesque” school of landscape naturally makes particular use of trees. By common consent the arboretum in the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew is one of the finest in the world. Its beginnings may be traced back to 1762, when, at the suggestion of Lord Bute, the duke of Argyll’s trees and shrubs were removed from Whitton Place, near Hounslow, to adorn the princess of Wales’s garden at Kew. The duke’s collection was famous for its cedars, pines and firs. Most of the trees of that date have perished, but the survivors embrace some of the finest of their kind in the gardens. The botanical gardens at Kew were thrown open to the public in 1841 under the directorate of Sir William Hooker. Including the arboretum, their total area did not then exceed 11 acres. Four years later the pleasure grounds and gardens at Kew occupied by the king of Hanover were given to the nation and placed under the care of Sir William for the express purpose of being converted into an arboretum. Hooker rose to the occasion and, zealously reinforced by his son and successor, Sir Joseph, established a collection which rapidly grew in richness and importance. It is perhaps the largest collection of hardy trees and shrubs known, comprising some 4500 species and botanical varieties. A large proportion of the total acreage (288) of the Gardens is monopolized by the arboretum. Of the more specialized public arboreta in the United Kingdom the next to Kew are those in the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh and the Glasnevin Garden in Dublin. The collection of trees in the Botanic Garden at Cambridge is also one of respectable proportions. There is a small but very select collection of trees at Oxford, the oldest botanical garden in Great Britain, which was founded in 1632. In the United States the Arnold Arboretum at Boston ranks with Kew for size and completeness. It takes its name from its donor, the friend of Emerson. It was originally a well-timbered park, which, by later additions, now covers 222 acres. Practically, it forms part of the park system so characteristic of the city, being situated only 4 m. from the centre of population. There is a fine arboretum in the botanical gardens at Ottawa, in Canada (65 acres). On the continent of Europe the classic example is still the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, where, however, system lends more of formality than of beauty to the general effect. The collection of trees and shrubs at Schönbrunn, near Vienna, is an extensive one. At Dahlem near Berlin the new Kgl. Neuer Botanischer Garten has been laid out with a view to the accommodation of a very large collection of hardy trees and shrubs. There are now many large collections of hardy trees and shrubs in private parks and gardens throughout the British Islands, the interest taken in them by their proprietors having largely increased in recent years. Rich men collect trees, as they do paintings or books. They spare neither pains nor money in acquiring specimens, even from distant lands, to which they often send out expert collectors at their own expense. This, too, the Royal Horticultural Society was once wont to do, with valuable results, as in the case of David Douglas’s remarkable expedition to North America in 1823-1824. It will be remembered that when the laird of Dumbiedikes lay dying (Scott’s Heart of Midlothian, chap, viii.) he gave his son one bit of advice which Bacon himself could not have bettered. “Jock,” said the old reprobate, “when ye hae naething else to do; ye may be aye sticking in a tree; it will be growing, Jock, when ye’re sleeping.” Sir Walter assures us that a Scots earl took this maxim so seriously to heart that he planted a large tract of country with trees, a practice which in these days is promoted by the English and Royal Scottish Arboricultural Societies.

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