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HER MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY,

THE QUEEN,

WHOSE REIGN HAS BEEN NOT MORE ILLUSTRIOUS FOR NATIONAL PROSPERITY,

FOR THOSE PUBLIC VIRTUES WHICH ADORN THE SOVEREIGN,

AND FOR THE MORAL QUALITIES WHICH GRACE AND DIGNIFY DOMESTIC LIFE,

THAN FOR THE EXHIBITION OF THOSE TASTES WHICH RECEIVE

THEIR HIGHEST GRATIFICATION FROM THE

BEAUTIES OF NATURAL LANDSCAPE,

THIS TREATISE,

BY THE LATE SIR HENRY STEUART,

DESIGNED TO ILLUSTRATE

"THE ART OF CREATING REAL LANDSCAPE,"

BY AN APPLICATION OF

THE PRINCIPLES OF PHYSIOLOGY TO GENERAL AND PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE,

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.

As the former editions of the Planter's Guide are now out of print, and copies of the work have frequently been called for, a new and greatly improved edition has been accordingly prepared, containing three additional sections, accompanied with notes, on the nature and cultivation of British forest trees, which had been drawn up by Sir Henry Steuart previous to his death, with a view to a third edition. Such as these MSS. emanated from the hands of the Author of the original work, with his final corrections, they are now appended to this edition, and form the 12th, 13th, and 14th sections, with their corresponding notes in the appendix.

The title of the work has been slightly altered, with the view of not encumbering the title-page with unnecessary matter. The original title describes the Planter's Guide to be "an attempt to place the art, and that of general arboriculture, on phytological and fixed principles; interspersed with observations on general planting, and the improvement of real

landscape, originally intended for the climate of Scotland." The present title sufficiently describes the object of the Treatise, and is more nearly assimilated, as we learn from Sir Henry's correspondence, to what the Author originally designed. It has been deemed proper, however, to insert the full title in this prefatory notice.

A short Memoir has further been drawn up, and an engraving of the Author, lately taken from an admirable painting by Sir Henry Raeburn at Allanton, has also been prefixed to this work. Upon the whole, it is hoped that, as every effort has been made to render this edition as complete as possible, it will secure the same approbation and success which have attended those by which it was preceded.

R.

NOTE. In proof of the success which has attended Sir Henry's system of transplanting, it may be proper to state, that all the forest trees, of which we may specify the Oak, Lime, Elm, and Ash, which have been transplanted about a quarter of a century in the park at Allanton, are now sending forth vigorous shoots from twelve to eighteen inches yearly, as measured in March 1848, and the stems are increasing proportionably. These trees exhibit not only every symptom of health, but are yearly improving in vigour and growth.