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The nursery of the fathers of the Chartreaux, established by 

 Louis XIV, near the Luxembourg, long supplied a great part 

 of Europe with fruit trees. The Jardin des Plants, in Paris, 

 " includes departments which may be considered as schools for 

 horticulture, planting, agriculture, medical botany and general 

 economy ; " and there can be no question, says Loudon, of its 

 being the most scientific and best kept in Europe. 



The flower garden of Malmaison, the botanical garden of 

 Trianon, and numerous nursery, herb, medicinal, experimental, 

 and botanic gardens, in various parts of the kingdom, are pre- 

 eminent for the variety, number, and excellence of their products, 

 and for the perfection of their cultivation. 



Holland has been distinguished, since the period of the Cru- 

 sades, for her flower gardens, culinary vegetables, and planta- 

 tions of fruit trees. The north of Europe and this country, are 

 still dependent upon her florists, for the most splendid varieties 

 of the bulbous rooted plants, and her celebrated nurseries, 

 which long replenished those of England, have been recently en- 

 riched by the acquisitions of Van Mons and Duquesne. Several 

 of the new kinds of fruits produced by those indefatigable expe- 

 rimentalists, already ornament our gardens, and with the excel- 

 lent varieties created by Knight, promise to replace those, which 

 have either become extinct, or are so deteriorated in quality, as 

 to discourage their farther cultivation. 



This method of hybridous fructification is founded on Linnaeus' 

 Sexual System of Plants, but the venerable President, of the 

 London Horticultural Society, is entitled to the merit, of having 

 first practically availed of a suggestion, which emanated from 

 the beautiful theory of the northern Pliny. On the African 

 coast of the Mediterranean, a custom, based on the same princi- 

 ples, has prevailed, from the earliest ages, in the cultivation of 

 the Date that " Tree of Life" to the natives of those sultry 

 regions. The stamens and pistils of that species of Palm are 

 produced on different trees, and those which afford the former 

 being relatively quite low, it is necessary to cut off the blossoms 



