the 

 FLORICULTURAL CABINET, 



DECEMBER, 1st, 1838. 



PART I. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS, 



ARTICLE I. 



ON CHINESE GARDENS. 



BY SIR W. C- 



Amongst the Chinese, gardening is held in much higher es- 

 teem, than it is held in Europe ; they rank a perfect work in that 

 art, with the great productions of the human understanding ; and 

 say that its efficacy in moving the passions, yields to that of 

 few other arts whatever. Their gardeners are not only bota- 

 nists, but also painters and philosophers , having a thorough 

 knowledge of the human mind, and of the arts by which its strong- 

 est feelings are excited. It is not in China as in Italy and France, 

 where every petty architect is a gardener ; neither is it as in an- 

 other famous country, where peasants emerge from the melon 

 grounds to take the periwig, and tnrn professors ; as Sganarelle, 

 the faggot maker, quitted his hatchet and commenced physician. 

 In China gardening is a distinct profession, requiring an extensive 

 study, to the perfection of which few arrive. The gardeners there, 

 far from being cither ignorant or illiterate, are men of high abi- 

 lities, who join to good natural parts most ornaments that study, 

 travelling, and long experience can supply them with ; it is in con- 

 sideration of these accomplishments only that they are permitted 

 to exercise their profession ; for which the Chinese taste of or- 



Vojl. VI. No. 70. fp 



