134 Review of an Address before the Col. Hori. Society. 



We present tlieiii to tlin.se to wliom \vc are under obligations; they are often 

 iiecesi^iiry to the |)om|) of onr religions ceremonies, and lliey seem to asso- 

 ciate and mingle tlieir jjciinnies witli the imrity of onr prayers, and the 

 homage which we adih'er^s to the Almighty. Happy are tliose who love and 

 cultivate them.' There is, moreover, in the well cultivated garden, a placid 

 beauty and a stilhie.-s and repose suited to the tranquillity of domestic life, 

 and vvhieli, in the bustle and excitements of the world, make us hojie, like 

 the poet Cowley, that we may be able 'one day to retire to a small house 

 and a large garden.' There is nuich truth in the observation of Mrs. Hof- 

 land, 'our first most endearing and sacred associations are connected with 

 gardens ; onr most simple and most refined perceptions of beauty are com- 

 bined with them, and the very condition of our being, compels us to the 

 cares, and rewards us with the pleasures attached to them.' The Greeks 

 ap|)ropriated their celestial gardens to the gods; and the Mahometans, says 

 Phillips, reserve their flowery lawns and umbrageous bowers for scenes of 

 future bliss. To the ftiir sex may be attributed many of the improvements 

 and beauties which are now so conspicuons in the ornamental or landscape 

 garden. The wonderful hanging gardens of Babylon are said to owe their 

 origin to the Queen of Nebuchadnez/ar, who to pacify her regrets at leav- 

 ing the country in which she was born, and which ajipeared so beautiful by 

 contrast, erected the famous terraces, covered with trees, and supporting 

 rural seats, fountains, and ban(|ueting halls, which formed one of the won- 

 ders of the world. But, whatever may have been the influence exercised 

 by woman in the forination and improvement of the gardens of antiquity, it 

 is certain that there is no department of nature so ap|)ropriate to the female 

 hand as the cultivation of flowers. ' Flowers seem intended for the embel- 

 lishment of the fair and for the ornament of the s|)ot where they tread. 

 Their swept [jerfumes have such influence over all our sensations, thtU in 

 the midst of flowering shrubs the most acute grief generally gives vvay to 

 the sweetest melancholy. When our home or domestic companions are en- 

 com|)assed by the shrubbery, our situation then ap|)roaches nearest to a ter- 

 restrial paradise.' There is, perhaps, no object in nature more pleasing 

 than a young and beautiful woman, blooming in inno(;ence and loveliness, 

 seen amidst a parterre of flowers, herself the fairest, sustaining the drooping 

 lily, or administering to the nourishment of the ex])anding beauties of the 

 rose." 



Mr. Watterston continues with an account of the progress of Hor- 

 ticulture, Botany, Landscape Gardening, &c. 



In speaking of the improvabihty of vegetable nature, he re- 

 marks : — 



"But to render cultivation cflfectual, Horticidtin-e as a science requires, in 

 addition to Botany, the aid and co-operation of other branches of knowledge, 

 among which the most important are Cheufistry, Mineralogy, Rural Archi- 

 tectin-e, and EiUomology. The scieniific gardener should be acquainted 

 with the various materials, or substances, of which the earth that he tills is 

 composed, that he may, with greater certainty and benefit, know how to 

 adapt the plant to its most congenial soil, and the soil to the plant. A know- 

 ledge of the properties of compost, the luanner in which lands are enriched, 

 the causes of their fertility, the peculiar character of each soil, the effect 

 and operation of diff'erent manures on vegetation, &c., are indispensable to 

 the skilful horticulturist. Rural Architecture, Hydraulics, and Mechanics 

 fortn no inconsiderable portion of the necessary information of the land- 

 scape gardener. Indeed 



' Ce noble emploi demande un artiste qui pense 

 Prodigue de genie, mais non pas de depense.' — Delille. 



