285 



GARDEN. 



GARDEN. 



280 



from which they were transferred to the open air as soon as the spring | 

 became sufficiently mild. The substitution of glass-roofs, by in- I 

 creasing the quantity of light, put it at once in the power of the 

 gardener to cultivate permanently in his greenhouse those natives of j 

 hot countries which are not capable of bearing the open air of Europe 

 even during the summer. From the time of Switzer to the present 

 day there has been a- gradual improvement in the construction of 

 greenhouses, the object being to supply the plants with as nearly the 

 same amount of light when under the glass-roof, as they would have 

 had if in the open air. The modern invention of curvilinear iron-roofs 

 has accomplished this end in a most remarkable degree ; for they sub- 

 stitute an obstruction to light amounting to only ^ or ^ for a loss 

 equivalent to J or even }. 



The mode of heating such houses has given the modern cultivator 

 additional advantages of the greatest importance. Stoves of all kinds 

 not only dry up the moisture of the atmosphere, but impregnate the 

 air with gaseous exhalations unfavourable to vegetation. The substi- 

 tution of flues, while it equalised the heat, was still worse than the 

 stove in drying and deteriorating the air; the introduction of fer- 

 menting vegetable matter, such as tan in a pit, in the interior of the 

 house, remedied this evil in some measure, but the application of 

 steam-pipes or hot- water pipes has had the great advantage of obviating 

 every inconvenience, and has given the gardener the power of modify- 

 ing the heat and moisture of hia greenhouse at pleasure. Add to this, 

 the rapidity of communication between one country and another, the 

 long peace with which Europe was blessed, and the leisure it gave 

 men to occupy themselves with domestic enjoyments, the great 

 encouragement given to gardeners, the establishment of Horticultural 

 Societies for the promotion of the art of gardening, and the discoveries 

 made in vegetable physiology add all these things to the improve- 

 ments in greenhouses, under which name is here included all descrip- 

 tions of glass buildings for horticultural purposes, and there is no 

 difficulty in accounting for the present flourishing condition of Euro- 

 pean gardens. 



There is one point further that requires to be noticed, as con- 

 tributing to this result, and that is, the extension of the education of 

 the working gardener. Great numbers of gardeners are now well 

 informed in the higher branches of their profession. Instead of trust- 

 ing to certain empirical rules, or to receipt* for gardening operations, 

 as if growing a plant was much the same thing as making a pudding, 

 they make themselves acquainted with the principles upon which their 

 operations are conducted; they acquire a knowledge of botany and 

 vegetable physiology, and some even of physical geography, and thus 

 they place themselves in the only position from which they can securely 

 advance to the improvement of their art. The necessity of these sub- 

 jects forming a part of all gardeners' education cannot be too strongly 

 d upon ; the Horticultural Society of London have recognised 

 their importance by requiring all the young men in their garden to 

 pass an examination in such subjects, in addition to their possessing 

 the usual gardeners' acquirements ; and although people ignorant of 

 such subjects themselves have been found absurd enough to blame the 

 proceeding, there can be no doubt that the world will give the Society 

 the credit they deserve for having been the first to set this most 

 important example, which we trust will be followed by all such insti- 



-i through the country. 



In noticing modern gardens we must necessarily confine ourselves 

 to a few of the most remarkable, passing by entirely those of private 

 individuals, and in general all second-rate public establishments. The 



r who is desirous of procuring detailed information upon the 

 subject will find an ample account of all the best modern gardens in 

 M r. Loudon's excellent ' Encyclopedia of Gardening,' to" which we have 



liii-h indebted for this article. 



Although the restoration of gardens took place among the nobles of 

 Italy, and many noble instances of wealth and taste applied to such 



ses still remain, yet the political condition of that country is 



uurable to horticultural pursuits, and although there are gardens 

 attached to m,,.st of the Italian cities, there are none of much note, 

 except for their picturesque features and fine architectural embellish- 

 ments. Those of Naples, Florence, and Mouza near Milan, are among 

 the most remarkable. 



The Dutch, although too much attached to the stiff formal style of 

 clipped hedges, straight walks, and architectural puerilities, have 

 always had a great reputation as gardeners. Their wealth and their 

 commerce with the Cape of Good Hope and the East Indies gave them 

 fc.r .i while extraordinary advantages over other nations, and for a long 

 tiiin; their garden of Leyden was considered the richest in Europe. 

 begun in 1577; in 1633 it contained 1104 species, and was so 



ly enriched by the zeal of the wealthy Dutch merchants, that in 

 1720 no fewer than 6000 species were catalogued by Boerhaave, who 

 was then professor of botany at Leyden. From this source was at one 

 time obtained the principal part of the succulent and other plants 

 native of the Cape of Good Hope. It was afterwards a good deal 



'ted, but WM renovated under the care of Dr. Blume, and now 

 """k "!,' the fluent of the public gardens of Europe. 



In tip- Netherlands there are small public gardens, both at Antwerp 

 the finest in Europe at Brussels. Some yearn 



it wan a wretched place, scarcely deserving the name of a garden ; 

 but in 1820 it wan removed to its present site on the boulevards, and 



entirely re-formed. It now contains extensive ranges of hothouses, 

 and a large collection of plants. The roof of the houses is formed of 

 curvilinear iron bars, and the whole is heated by steam. The principal 

 range is seated on a terrace, with several fountains and broad flights 

 of steps in front of it ; while on a lower level are low ranges of pits for 

 pine-apple plants and small tropical species. 



Among the German sovereigns a taste for gardening has grown up 

 in a degree unknown in any other country except among the English. 

 A love of the beautiful, a fondness for natural objects, a quiet con- 

 tented character, so characteristic of the German nations, has no doubt 

 been the cause of this. In Loudon's ' History of Gardening,' no fewer 

 than ninety closely printed pages are occupied with short accounts of 

 the principal gardens of Germany only. Of these we can only select 

 those of Munich, Berlin, and Vienna. 



The garden of Munich is extremely rich in plants that can be 

 cultivated in greenhouses and hothouses, but poor in those species 

 which require to be grown in the open air : this happens in conse- 

 quence of the severity of the winter, which destroys even the holly. 

 There is a very fine' range of hothouses, containing numerous palms, 

 succulent and other plants. It is however considered that the plants, 

 especially the Brazilian plants, in the hothouses at Nymphenburg are 

 much finer than those at Munich. 



The botanic garden at Berlin has long been one of the great sources 

 from which the gardens of Europe have derived supplies of new plants, 

 chiefly from Brazil, Mexico, and the Cape of Good Hope, in which 

 country the king of Prussia has maintained collectors. It contains 

 many hothouses and greenhouses, each of which is often dedicated to 

 the reception of plants of some one tribe only. There is one for 

 endogenous plants exclusively, another for ferns and palms, a third for 

 Australian plants, and others for heaths, Cape, and Mexican plants; 

 there are some very fine palms, and in all respects the collection of 

 species is one of the most extensive in the world. 



If the garden of Schonbrunn is less rich in plants than that of 

 Berlin, it much excels it in the magnificence of its hothouses and 

 greenhouses. The emperors of Austria have for above a century been 

 anxious to render this garden the finest in the world; and no cost has 

 been spared in sending gardeners to foreign countries in order to 

 increase the collection. It is however chiefly by supplies from the 

 tropical parts of America that this garden has been enriched. There 

 are several ranges of glasshouses, in which the species are grouped 

 with great taste, and which from then- size allow the plants to grow 

 with all their native tropical luxuriance. 



Rivalling these imperial structures are the gardens of St. Petersburg, 

 founded by the emperor Alexander on the Apothecaries' Island in the 

 Neva. In a country with such a climate as Russia gardening can 

 hardly exist, except with artificial heat under glass roofs, and it is 

 necessary to call in aid all the resources of art lu order to overcome 

 the difficulties of nature. It is not surprising then that in this 

 situation the glasshouses should exceed in extent those of all other 

 parts of Europe. In the open ground there is a large collection of 

 hardy plants, a quarter devoted to systematical botany for the purposes 

 of students, an arboretum, and a division for medicinal species. One 

 excellent feature in the internal arrangements of this garden is the 

 placing the plants geographically, so that the most careless observer in 

 proceeding through the different suites cannot fail to be struck with 

 the changes in vegetation as he passes from Africa to America, to 

 Australia, to India, China, and so on. 



In France gardening has never been in a very flourishing condition ; 

 it is true that great quantities of vegetables are raised for the market, 

 that the fruits of France are justly celebrated for their excellence, and 

 the flower-markets of Paris are well supplied; it is also true that 

 numerous excellent works on gardening have been written in France. 

 But for the quality of their fruit the French are chiefly indebted to 

 their climate, for the abundant supply of the vegetable market to their 

 peculiar cookery, and for the excellence of their written works rather 

 to the ingenuity of a few clever men, than to the general habits of the 

 community. In flowers their taste is rather that of the Romans than 

 of other European nations, for they are contented with a few showy 

 kinds of sweet-smelling flowers, especially roses. Their great public 

 gardens rather resemble in character those of tfec days of Henry VIII., 

 than of the 19th century. There no doubt are exceptions to this state- 

 ment, but the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, which is the largest of the 

 public establishments in France to which the name of garden properly 

 applies, is scarcely one. For a considerable period it consisted merely 

 of various departments, in the open air, devoted to purposes of teach- 

 ing ; of an indifferent collection of hardy herbaceous plants, and hardy 

 trees and shrubs; and of some contrivances to aid the student of 

 agriculture. Of late years large glass-houses have been built, and 

 many improvements made, yet even now there are few judges of 

 gardens who would assign the Jardin des Plantes a place among the 

 first class of European gardens. 



In Great Britain it has not been the policy of the government to 

 offer direct encouragement to cither science or art, except in a 

 sparing manner, but rather to throw the duty of fostering them 

 upon the people. So far as gardening is concerned the government 

 has been right ; for if in this country such public gardens as we 

 have enumerated are unknown, on the other hand no part of the Con- 

 tinent possesses such multitudes of good private gardens as Great 



