Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles, Vol. 1 (Classic Reprint)

In these and a few similar cases the older generic names have been revived. But there has lately risen a school of workers, with a strong following on the Continent and in the United States, whose aim is to subdivide species, genera, and Natural Orders to the fullest extent. Whilst much of this is, no doubt, the result of a closer study and a more critical insight than the older men practised, some of it seems to represent a desire of change for changes sake. At any rate, if adopted in its entirety, it would involve such confusion and readjustment of nomenclature as to render its acceptance by cultivators in the last degree unlikely in this country. In the case of nomenclature of species, I have with few exceptions clung to what is known as the Kew rule of giving a plant the specific name first published in conjunction with the proper genus. In the preparation of this work I have had the enormous advantage of being able to make full use, not only of the magnificent collections of living plants at Kew, but also of the herbarium of trees and shrubs which has been in course of formation there for thirty years, at first by the late Mr Geo. Nicholson, and during the last thirteen years by myself. There are very few of the descriptions that have not been made from authentic material living or dried. Some explanation of the term hardy as used in the following pages is perhaps needed. There is a great variety of climate in theB ritish I sles, and the word hardy has a very different significance, say, in eastern Northumberland to what it has atF almouth or Cork. Although we are apt, almost instinctively, to regard the softness of the climate as progressing from north to south, it is, in Great Britain, rather from east to west. Thus, plants can be grown on the west coast of Scotland as far to the north as Ross-shire, such as Desfontainea, Tricuspidaria and Himalayan r
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)