268 On Modern Lnprovements of Horticulture. 



as well as for the pine-apple. In those clays our fruit-lists 

 contained twenty sorts, of which there were many varieties. Of 

 culinary vegetables there were, of roots eighteen, of shoots 

 four, of leaves fourteen, of flowers three, of seeds three, of pods 

 two, and of herbs for all purposes twenty-five. 



From that period, the commencement of the eighteenth 

 century, every succeeding year brought forth new objects of 

 the gardener's care, and improved operations for his imitation. 

 The acquirements of natural science, radiating from such a 

 character as Sir Hans Sloane, whose theories were imbibed 

 and confirmed by the practical abilities of Philip Miller, 

 were, at that time, like the orb of day bursting from behind 

 a cloud ! Scientific light and practical life were shed on all 

 around, and the foundation was then laid, by their united 

 means, on which has been raised almost all the varied structure 

 of modern horticultural improvement. It would be impossible, 

 as needless, to give the names of the authors, who, from this 

 period, showed themselves in print on the subject of gardening, 

 for, were the respective merits of their literary labours noticed, 

 and the successive discoveries and advances chronicled, the 

 amount would be voluminous indeed. But the following cele- 

 brated names cannot, injustice to their memories, be omitted. 

 The great Linnaeus was deservedly at the head of the botanical 

 branch of gardening ; M iller, with his satellites, Gordon, Lee, 

 and Aiton were at that of practical botany, as well as of all 

 the other parts of operative gardening ; and, as a leading 

 orchardist, Kennedy, and many others on miscellaneous sub- 

 jects, produced respectable directories and kalendars. 



The improvement of ornamental gardening kept pace with 

 that of the more useful. Soon as the old style of rigid forma- 

 lity had been exposed, it was exploded ; more refined prin- 

 ciples of taste prevailed ; its outlines became better defined ; 

 it was found that there are certain fixed principles in nature, 

 on which the elements of true taste are naturally (not caprici-. 

 ously) founded ; that delight and gratification to the eye, or 

 mind, can only arise from the harmony and fitness of the com- 

 binations of art or design ; that the sensations of beauty and 

 sublimity can only be conveyed by congruous associations of 

 parts to the whole ; and that ^the incidents found in conjunc- 



