272 On Modern Improvements of Horticulture, 



raising new orchards, has given a check to such exertion, ex- 

 cept in places at a distance from the metropolis, where orchards 

 have suffered less from decay, and where the habits of the 

 cider drinkers are more inveterate. Mr. Knight, the President 

 of the Horticultural Society, has written copiously on this sub- 

 ject, and very properly considers the cultivation of orchard 

 fruit as a national object ; and by his example has done as 

 much, nay, much more, than any other gentleman in the king- 

 dom, to restore our orchards to what they used to be, and what 

 they may be, — and it is hoped his excellent instructions will 

 not be thrown away. 



Kitchen-gardening, the most important and useful branch 

 of the subject, next demands attention ; and here we are grati- 

 fied with a fine display of the efficacy of perseverance, the 

 success of experience, and the triumphs of skill. In every 

 month of the year, in spite of the winter's frost or summer's 

 sun, our tables are supplied with wholesome and agreeable 

 vegetables: — of roots we have fourteen sorts ; of stems, shoots, 

 and leaf-stalks, seven ; of leaves, eight ; of flowers, four : of 

 culinary fruits we have sixteen ; of seeds and pods, six ; of 

 condimental herbs we have twenty-nine ; and of herbs and 

 seeds for confections there are seven, besides various fruit : of 

 roots, leaves, flowers, and fruit, for salads, there are in cultiva- 

 tion twenty-two kinds ; and various sorts of plants for medicine 

 and distillation. 



Of table-fruit there are above twenty different species, and 

 of these numberless varieties, extending to several hundreds, 

 or even thousands, of various excellency and value. 



A few tropical and foreign fruits, not included in the above, 

 have been cultivated in tolerable perfection in Europe within 

 these few years, viz. the Chinese loquat and litchee, the cus- 

 tard apple, mangosteen, and mango, &c. ; and there is no 

 doubt, if these fruits could be worked on some hardier kindred 

 stock, and a suitable place formed for them in a stove, they 

 might be cultivated with the same success as the anana. 



In the forcing department of gardening, wonders have been 

 accomplished. By this application of art, we appropriate to 

 ourselves an almost perfect imitation of any of the warmer cli- 



