exhortation from the press, in an age when the
nobility and gentry began to read and to reflect, he knew would do more.
A proper person for the purpose therefore was sought and found; a man of
family, fortune, and learning; an experienced planter; a virtuoso, and
not a little of an enthusiast in his own walk. Such was Mr. Evelyn: and
to this occasion we are indebted for the _Sylva_, which has therefore a
title to be regarded as a national work... It sounded the trumpet of
alarm to the nation on the condition of their woods and forests.'

The re-publication of the _Sylva_ by Dr. Hunter, coming at an
appropriate moment, revived the ardour which the work had excited about
60 years previously, and 'while forests were laid prostrate to protect
our shores from the insults of the enemy, the nobility and gentry began
once more to sow the seeds of future navies.'

Previous to 1812, planting on any large scale whether for profit or
ornament seems to have been confined chiefly to great estates, and 'if a
private gentleman, in the century preceding, planted an hedgrow of an
hundred oaks, it was recorded, for the benefit of posterity, in his
diary.' The trade in the supply of plants had previously been in the
hands of a few nurserymen, but on the appearance of Dr. Hunter's new
edition many private nurseries were established. This was more
especially the case in Scotland, where the Scottish nobility took the
lead 'in this national and patriotic work,'--which promised to be very
profitable, owing to the recent introduction of the larch. The
well-deserved eulogy given in the _Quarterly Review_ article to the
rapid growth of fine timber of this valuable forest tree was the direct
cause of larch plantations being largely extended, because it was said
that 'a tree which, if the oak should fail, would build navies, and if
the forests of Livonia or Norway or Canada were exhausted, would build
cities, is an acquisition to this island almost without a parallel.' And
it still is one of the most valuable of our woodland trees, despite the
cankerous fungus-disease which has certainly been (indirectly) due in no
small degree to injudicious planting in pure woods on unsuitable soils
and situations.

This _Quarterly Review_ article of 1813 probably did quite as much to
stimulate planting throughout Great Britain as the _Sylva_ itself had
previously done; but as Evelyn's classic formed the text for the
exhortation, the beneficial effects must of