We always welcome every new contribution to the "literature of trees." It happens more frequently than otherwise, that the planter who becomes the proprietor of a new place knows nothing of the business he undertakes in attempting to lay the foundation of an ornamental lawn or garden. Why this is so, we shall not stop to inquire; but we know that when ninety-nine out of a hundred citizens are placed suddenly in an arboretum, they are unable to distinguish the beautiful, or to classify the objects around them; nor would any of these ninety-nine be qualified to undertake, even with the advice of books, the selection of trees for their own grounds. Unfortunately, it is these very citizens who most frequently become possessed of the means which are an essential part of the process. The determination to plant is followed by the purchase of books. These are read, too, but not understandingly. If a competent gardener is employed to give his advice and assistance, the probabilities will be that he is interfered with.

The difficulties inseparable from procuring the variety necessary, and the hurry with which it must be done, with the too late discovery that much more than was expected has been expended on the dwelling and its numerous alterations and added conveniences, deter the cit in pursuit of a tub in urbe from doing half he should* do in the way of ornamental planting. The result is a miserable failure: handsome furniture, and miserable trees; a showy equipage, and no underdraining; elegant dinner parties, and no variety of out-door objects; a show of plate and china, and not a single plant to satisfy the botanist. Why is this? In the first place, want of knowledge in the proprietor is the greatest drawback; imperfect assistance and advice is the second; the third may be set down as the difficulty of procuring from the near vicinity of the ground to be ornamented that variety which constitutes one of the elements of beauty: - for the beginner may set it down as a fact, that to collect an arboretum is as difficult a feat as to make a cabinet of shells or a museum of birds. At best it must be a work of some time, unless you choose to make a long list and forward it to the proper quarter, knowing that your purse will suffer in shortness in proportion to the length of the order.

No one, however, need despair; these observations regarding the difficulties should only stimulate the beginner, who must, if he wants to have the true enjoyment such pursuits afford, give a little time at least to the study of the subject.

What book shall we recommend for this study? We candidly confess we know of no single one that will answer the purpose, though there are many that will aid the learner. Observation of the work done and the beauty accomplished by others, is of the first importance; inquiries, and visits to well-planted places, nurseries and so forth, can not be too frequent, in conjunction with study at home; botanical knowledge is useful - we do not say indispensable; and yet some kind of love for the topic must be at the bottom of the whole.

Mr. MEEhaN possesses the requisites for an adviser; and we know of few men to whom we would more freely confide the responsible trust of planting for us. In his book. however, he has been too brief. As gardener at the Bartram Arboretum, near Philadelphia, he has studied and observed the trees there; and subsequently at the costly greenhouses and gardens of Caleb Cope, Esq., near the same city, he has perfected his knowledge: but we can not but think his pages might have been safely enlarged; or the measurements and histories of the single trees at Bartram's have been sometimes omitted, to include in the volume information of a more varied and useful kind. We should like the substratum he has turned up to be again dug over, manured, and planted thicker with more shrubs of knowledge. In short, he does not tell enough, however true it may be that what he does print is dependable. The "hand-book" should be a thorough guide. When it lands us by rail for a visit of a day to some city in Italy, it should tell us all that is essential to be known, that can be compressed into a small space.

The planter is most probably in as great a hurry as the traveler: he has other things to do - his counting-house and correspondence to attend to - like the traveler, who no sooner catches a glimpse of the leaning tower of Pisa than he wants to hurry off to Florence and Rome, and to read in his coach, as he lolls as at his ease, all about what he has seen; and yet not all, - he does not care to know how many sticks or blocks compose the steeple of Strasburg Cathedral, but he does desire to read of its height and ornaments, and the lacework of its astounding stone abutments.

We have said enough to indicate the difficulties attendant on the first study of planting, and have shown that the busy merchant, in possession of more dollars than tree-knowledge, is the person who is to buy and study your "hand-book." And what should an "American hand-book of trees" be? This is a more difficult question; nor should we be able to point out the man now living who could make exactly our beau ideal of such a work. It will not be entirely complete, however, till it is published annually, with information in it as to where such and such trees are to be bought the ensuing season, in the best health, in quanties, and at the fairest price - which, be it known also, is not always the lowest. For instance, in our imaginary annual for 1854, we should like it to tell the interesting circumstance, that owing to a mistake! the Messrs. Parsons, of Flushing, Long Island, are actually the lucky possessors of more of the fine evergreens of California and Oregon, than any nurserymen in the world. They ordered seeds to bo sent them from those Pacific "greenhouses," and were somewhat surprised, when they came, to find them accompanied by a bill of twelve hundred dollars! Twelve hundred dollars for a box of seeds! The order had been given, the money was paid, and now for the result.