PREFACE.
It may be thought presumptuous in a person who has never had the curiosity to peruse the British classic authors on planting and timber—EVELYN, HANBURY, MARSHALL, MILLER, PONTEY—to make experiment of the public sufferance. The author does not, however, think any apology necessary; as, if the public lose time unprofitably over his pages, he considers the blame attachable to them, not to him. A writer does not obtrude as a speaker does, but merely places his thoughts within reach.
As the subject, notwithstanding its great importance, might, per se, be felt dry and {vi} insipid by the general reader, accustomed to the luxuries of modern literature, the author has not scrupled to mix with it such collateral matter as he thought might serve to correct the aridity. The very great interest of the question regarding species, variety, habit, has perhaps led him a little too wide.
There is one advantage in taking a subject of this kind, that few professional (literary) critics can meddle with it, further than as regards style and language, without exposing their own ignorance. Yet will the author experience the highest pleasure in being instructed and corrected, wherever his knowledge may be found defective, or when speculation or misconception of facts have led him into error. Knowledge and truth, is mental strength and health; ignorance and error, weakness and {vii} disease: the man who pursues science for its own sake, and not for the pride of possession, will feel more gratitude towards the surgeon who dislodges a cataract from the mind’s eye, than towards the one who repairs the defect of the bodily organ.