30 HISTORY OF GARDENING. Part I. 



134. The garden of Groningen was begun by Henry Munting, a zealous botanist and learned man, who 

 had spent eight years travelling in the different countries of Europe, establishing correspondences between 

 botanists and cultivators. He spent the greatest part of his fortune upon his garden; but, in 1641, the 

 states of Groningen, thinking so useful an establishment ought to be under the protection of the republic, 

 purchased it, and appointed him professor. The catalogue of this garden, published in 1646, contains 

 about 1500 plants, without comprehending more than 600 varieties ; 100 of pinks, and 150 of tulips. 

 Henry Munting was succeeded by his son, Abraham, esteemed for his posthumous work, Phytographia 

 Curio'sa. Both these gardens are still kept up, but without that enthusiastic ardor which distinguished 

 the citizens of Holland, when under more auspicious political circumstances than they are at the present 

 time. 



135. The Antwerp garden was formerly one of considerable repute in the Low Countries. In 1579 a cata- 

 logue of this garden was given by Dodoens (Florum et Coronarium arb. Hist.) which contained a consider- 

 able number of plants, including a great variety of tulips and hyacinths. 



136. The garden of Clifford, near Haerlem, of which Linna;us published the history, was the most cele- 

 brated in 1737. Clifford got all the new plants from England, and corresponded with the botanists of every 

 country. Boerhaave gave him the plants of the Leyden garden ; Siegesbeck sent him those of Russia ; Haller, 

 those of the Alps; and Burman, Roell, Gronovius, and Miller, sent him portions of the seeds which they 

 received from different parts of the world. This garden had four magnificent hot-houses ; one for the 

 plants of the Levant and the south of Europe, one for Africa, one for India, and one for America. 



137. The botanic garden of Utrecht was founded in 1630, and contains several palms and other exotics, 

 brought there at that time. It is still kept in tolerable order, but displays no kind of scientific arrange- 

 ment. (Hort. Tour, 244.) 



138. The botanic garden of Ghent, established by Buonaparte in 1797, is, in the present day, the richest 

 and best garden of the Netherlands. The area is about three acres : it has a considerable collection of 

 hardy herbaceous plants, arranged after the Linneean method ; a pleasure-ground, in which the trees and 

 shrubs are distributed in natural families, and so as to combine picturesque effect ; an excellent rosary, 

 chiefly trained in the tree manner; and a range of hot-houses, in part with glass roofs. In the pleasure- 

 ground the busts of eminent botanists are distributed with good effect ; and on the large boxes of palms, 

 and other exotics, are marked the name of the donor, or the year in which the plant or tree was originated, 

 or introduced to the garden. On the whole, it is more complete than any garden we have seen south of 

 the Rhine, excepting that of Paris. 



139. The royal botanic garden of Brussels has a good collection of orange-trees ; but in all other respects 

 is of a very inferior description. 



140. The private botanic gardens of Van Schenen and Dr. Daaler, at Antwerp, are mentioned with ap- 

 probation in the Horticultural Tour. (p. 121.) 



141. Tlie botanic garden of M.Parmentier, mayor of Enghien, is not only the richest in the low countries, 

 but, perhaps, in Europe. In 1817, Neill and his companions considered it as only exceeded in exotics by 

 the collection at Kew, or at Messrs. Loddiges. 



142. Festivals of Flora are held twice a year, at midsummer and midwinter, by the 

 Agricultural Society of Ghent, and others. The plants are exhibited for three days. " By 

 a pleasing fiction, the plants alone are said to be competitors, and the successful plant is 

 said to be crowned." The reward is an honorary medal. {Hort. Tour, &c. p. 521.) 



143. Florists' flowers began to be objects of commerce in Holland, about the beginning of 

 the seventeenth century. Double flowers were then first noticed, or brought into repute, 

 which may be said to have created a new aera in gardening, and certainly laid the found- 

 ation in Holland of a considerable commerce : — the more valuable, as it is totally inde- 

 pendent of political or civil changes, and founded on the peculiar qualities of the soil and 

 climate for growing bulbous roots. The florimania, as it is termed by the French, ex- 

 isted in the highest degree among the Dutch, from the beginning to the middle of the 

 seventeenth century. Many noted instances are on record, of the extravagant sums given 

 for flowers possessing certain qualities agreed on by florists as desiderata, and established 

 about this time as canons of beauty. Hirschfield states, that in the register of the city of 

 Alkmaar, in the year 1637, they sold publicly, for the benefit of the Orphan Hospital, 

 120 tulips, with their offsets, for 9000 florins ; and that one of those flowers, named the 

 Viceroy, was sold for 4203 florins. When we consider the value of money at this remote 

 period, these sums appear enormous, a florin at that time in Holland [Anderson s His- 

 tory of Commerce) being the representative of nearly an English bushel of wheat. 



144. The commercial flower-gardens or bloemesteries of Haerlem have long been the most 

 celebrated for bulbous-rooted flowers. The name of Van Eden has been noted for upwards 

 of a century ; and there are now four gardens occupied by different members of this 

 family, celebrated florists. That of Voorhelm is of equal antiquity and celebrity. Of 

 the gardens of both families, and of several others, accounts will be found in the Horti- 

 cultural Tour. The most extensive and best managed is said to be that of Schneevoght, 

 lately a partner with Voorhelm. 



145. The florimanists, Bosc observes, were much more numerous towards the middle 

 of the last century than at this moment (1809). " One does not now hear of twenty 

 thousand francs being given for a tulip ; of a florist depriving himself of his food, in order 

 to increase the number and variety of his anemonies, or passing entire days in admiring 

 the colours of a ranunculus, the grandeur of a hyacinth, or trembling, lest the breath of 

 an over-curious admirer should hurt the bloom of an auricula." The general price of 

 choice bulbs now, it is observed in the Horticultural Tour, varies from three to ten 

 guilders (a guild. = Is. 8d.j ; a few kinds are valued at from ten to twenty guilders ; 

 and the most select, new, and consequently rare, varieties, seldom fetch more than from 

 twenty to 50 guilders. Among the most precious at this time are, the Universal Con- 

 queror, Pompe Funebre, and Charbonier Noir, with yellow grounds; Louis XVI. and 

 Toilette Superieure, with white grounds, and the price of them is one hundred guilders 

 (£8 2s. 6d.\ a bulb. (Hort. Tour. p. 195.) 



