262 On Modern Imjnovements of Horticulture, 



useful inquiry : it may tend to remove barriers which are only 

 imaginary, and by freeing the thinking powers of practitioners 

 from the trammels of custom, lead them forward into that 

 expanse of operative freedom, where much remains for the 

 exercise of the inquiring mind, and experimental hand, in 

 exploring the yet untrodden field of practicability, and calling 

 forth the still latent powers and susceptibilities of pregnant 

 nature. 



When we turn to the history of the first ages, we hear of 

 a garden as soon as we hear of man ; and though, from the 

 paucity of description, we can only form ideas of such a place 

 from the effusions of the poet, rather than from the detail of 

 the historian, yet, in judging from what still appears of abori- 

 ginal scenery, we may conclude with Milton that a garden was 

 a place, 



*' A happy rural seat of various views ; 



Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm ; 



Others whose fruit, burnished with golden rind. 



Hung amiable, and of delicious taste : 



Betwixt them lawns — or the flow'ry lap 



Of some irriguous valley spread her store." — Par. Lost. 



If such a place, it required care to rear the tender — to check 

 the luxuriant — correct the irregular — to support the burdened 

 — extirpate the noisome weed — and repulse the browsing ani- 

 mal. Such was the only occupation of the first gardeners : for 

 in those highly-favoured spots, those natural paradises, (some 

 of which still remain in India,) where the groves which formed 

 the habitations also supplied the simple food of the inhabitants ; 

 where the cocoa-nut *, with its various liquors, abounded ; 



* The cocoa palm is rather a gigantic herb than a tree : the stem rises 

 to a great height, of a strongly tough fibrous substance, but never so 

 indurated as timber, though it is used in the construction of houses. It 

 has no branches ; but is crowned with from five to seven ample compound 

 leaves, forming an umbrella-like head. The spatha issues from the 

 centre, and soon falls pendent between and below the footstalks of the 

 leaves, where it flowers and ripens the fruit. The nut is enveloped in a 

 thick t)rown fibrous husk, which opens to shed it when fully ripe. The 

 nut, when opened, yields two liquids, which are nutritious, and accounted 

 delicacies : the first is the milk which runs out ; the next is the cream 

 which is procured by being scooped off the kernel with a spoon : this is 

 of tiiick consistence, and much resembles the cream of milk. After these 

 remains the perfectly-formed layer of kernel attached to the shell, and 



