way, would gladly have spared them till they perished by decay. All do not view the same object in the same light, and it is well for the general good that it should be so. Each has thus his share in it.

It happened to the writer many years ago that he was riding in company with several persons, among whom was the celebrated author of the Essay on the Picturesque, together with a simple country squire, whose ideas and admiration of forest scenery centred in trees as timber. "What a charming effect," said the lover of pictorial beauty, "do those masses of foliage produce !" "Yes," added the other, "but the trees are worth next to nothing in the market." The man of taste turned round with a glance of disapprobation, and was silent at the moment, but could not refrain from expressing apart his disgust and indignation at such an absence of feeling; and yet each in his own way was not far from right.

Sir Uvedale Price, Bart., the person alluded to, a man of taste and a scholar, was an enthusiastic lover of forest scenery, as his oaks at Foxley, near Hereford, bore ample testimony. He used to prune them regularly, in part, with his own hand, and had under him a set of pruners who worked beneath his own eye. On the loss of one of them he expressed his regret to the writer in the words employed by Priam on the death of Hector, "Os dé poi dios eŋv (Iliad, ), such was his zeal for the care and cultivation of the oak.

A taste of this kind seems to have been inherent in the family. Colonel Price, a brother of the above gentleman, was a great and deserved favourite of George III. An anecdote is related of him that the King, intending to have a certain tree taken down, asked the Colonel's advice respecting it, at the same time expecting to meet with a ready acquiescence in the notion of its propriety. The Colonel, however, ventured respectfully to say that he was of a different opinion. "Aye," replied the King, somewhat hastily, "that's your way, you continually contradict me." "If your majesty," resumed Colonel Price, "will not condescend to listen to the honest sentiments of your faithful servants, you can never hear the truth." After a short pause, the King very kindly laid his hand upon the Colonel's shoulder, "You are right, Price, the tree shall stand." J. W.

ON THE GENUS FICUS.

BY JOHN R. JACKSON,

Curator of the Museum, Royal Gardens, Kew.

(With a Tinted Plate.)

WE have before spoken of tropical forest trees, and in a previous paper in the INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER, we gave a brief account of some of the most noble of the Australian forms; we also, in that paper, made a passing allusion to the denizens of the oriental forests. We purpose now to conduct our readers into some of these forests, or rather to introduce them to some of their inhabitants. Amonst the finest trees of purely tropical scenery, of course still excepting the palms, the members of the genus Ficus hold a prominent place. This genus belongs to the natural order Moraceae, and is that also. to which our common fig belongs, besides Morus itself, which includes the mulberry, Broussonetia, the paper mulberry, Dorstenia, and others. Though the order is small, it is a most important one, both in an economic point of view, and also in botanical interest. The genus Ficus is especially rich in many varied forms of useful products, for besides the fig itself, we have caoutchouc, lac, etc. Whether any of the species are European is a question upon which our best botanical authorities have differed. Lindley says that none of the Morads are European, and that the mulberry and common fig have both been brought from the East; other writers consider the fig to belong originally to Asia Minor, Persia, South-Eastern Europe, and North Africa. We can only say, that if not truly indigenous, the plant has become thoroughly naturalized in all the countries mentioned above. The way in which many of the species adapt themselves to circumstances in their mode of growth is peculiar, and very striking to an observer. In many cases we find them twining, and almost enveloping, colossal palm trunks, though they are capable of forming very thick trunks of their own, which frequently bear an immense spreading crown. The magnificent wild fig-trees of the East, indeed, are always regarded as the true friends of the sun-scorched traveller, affording, as they do, such a cool retreat, and such a complete shelter from the sun. Lindley says the genus Ficus is one of those which travellers describe as most conducing to the peculiarities of a tropical scene; and, quoting from the "Annals of Natural History," he says, "Mr Hinds points out the complex appearance of the main stem of many species; their immense horizontal branches, their proportionate lowness,