802 



HORSE-TAIL HORTICULTURE. 



leaves are very large, oval-oblong, and somewhat 

 resemble those of the common dock. The root is 

 cylindrical, penetrating very deeply into the ground, 

 and, when fresh, forms a well known condiment, 

 possessing a pungent taste and odour. It is also 

 employed medicinally, as an antiscorbutic and stimu- 

 lant. This plant is naturalized in some parts of 

 America, and is, besides, very commonly cultivated 

 in tianieiis. 



H ORSE-T A I L . See Equisetum . 



HORSE-TAIL, among the Ottomans and Tartars, 

 is used as a standard. It is also a sign of distinction 

 for tlie commanders, the number of horse-tails carried 

 before them, and planted before their tents, being in 

 proportion to their rank. Thus the sultan has seven 

 horse-tails in war, the grand vizier five, and the 

 pachas three, two, or one. This standard is said to 

 have been introduced among the tribes on occasion 

 of the loss of all their ensigns in battle ; the com- 

 mander, having listened a horse's tail to a lance, 

 rallied his troops and conquered. Its origin may 

 also be naturally explained from the common use of 

 the horse-tail as a military ornament among all 

 nations acquainted with horses. The Turkish horse- 

 tail consists of a pole, to which is attached one or 

 several tails, and other ornaments of horse hair. It 

 is surmounted by a crescent. 



HORSLEY, SAMUEL ; a learned dignitary of the 

 church of England, was born in London, October, 

 1733. He was educated at Cambridge, where he 

 took the degree of LL. B. in 1758. The same 

 year, he became curate to his father. In 1767, he 

 was chosen a fellow of the royal society ; and the 

 same year he published an elaborate treatise, entitled 

 the Power of God deduced from the computable 

 instantaneous Production of it in the Solar System 

 (8vo). In 1770 was printed, at the Clarendon press, 

 his earliest mathematical publication Apollonii 

 Pergeei Inclinationum Libri ii. In November, 1773, 

 he was elected secretary to the royal society. In 

 1774, he published Remarks on the Observations 

 made in the last Voyage towards the North Pole, for 

 discovering the Acceleration of the Pendulum, in 

 Latitude 79 50", in a Letter to the Honourable 

 C. J. Phipps (4to). In 1776, he published proposals 

 for a new edition of the works of Sir Isaac Newton, 

 which was gradually completed, in five vols., 4to. 

 He engaged warmly in the contest carried on in 

 1783 and 1784 with Sir Joseph Banks, respecting 

 his conduct as president of the royal society. About 

 the same period, he commenced a literary contro- 

 versy witlfc the great champion of Unitarianism, doc- 

 tor Priestley. In 1 788, he was made bishop of St 

 David's. He showed himself the strenuous advo- 

 cate for the existing state of things in religion and 

 politics ; and the merit of his conduct will accord- 

 ingly be differently appreciated. He certainly advo- 

 cated with ability the cause he had adopted. He 

 was promoted to the see of Rochester in 1793, and 

 made dean of Westminster; and, in 1802, he was 

 translated to St Asaph. He died October 4, 1806. 

 Bishop Horsley may at least claim the praise of con- 

 sistency of conduct as an enemy of innovation ; and 

 he was probably honest and sincere, if not wholly 

 disinterested, in his denunciations against religious 

 and political heresy and heretics. Besides the works 

 noticed, he was the author of Critical Disquisitions 

 on the Eighteenth Chapter of Isaiah (4to) ; Hosea, 

 a new Translation, with Notes (4to ; a Translation 

 of the Psalms (2 vols) ; Biblical Criticisms (4 vols., 

 8vo) ; sermons ; charges ; elementary treatises on 

 the mathematics; On the Prosodies of the Greek and 

 Latin Languages ; and papers in the Philosophical 

 Transactions. 



HORTENSIUS, QUINTUS, the celebrated orator, 



and the rival of Cicero, held many military and civil 

 offices, was consul 70 B. C., and was Cicero's col- 

 league as augur. The faction of Clodius, which he 

 opposed in common with Cicero, ill-treated him to 

 such a degree, that he narrowly escaped with his 

 life. His death was occasioned by an immoderate 

 effort in the delivery of a speech. He was rich, and 

 loved luxury and splendour. His speeches are all 

 lost. He often opposed Cicero (for instance, as the 

 defender of Verres), yet they were excellent friends. 

 The ancients commend the eloquence of Hortensius 

 as flowery, full of ornament, and approaching the 

 Asiatic style. He was elegant and acute in the con- 

 ception and distribution of his matter, and succeeded 

 by sudden effect. His delivery was graceful, and 

 his voice good. See Cicero. 



HORTICULTURE (from hortus, garden, and 

 colere, to till) includes, in its most extensive significa- 

 tion, the cultivation of esculent vegetables, fruits. 

 and ornamental plants, and the formation and man- 

 agement of rural scenery for the purposes of utility 

 and embellishment. 



The earliest ellbrt of man to emerge from a state 

 of barbarism was directed to the tillage of the earth : 

 the first seed which he planted was the first act of 

 civilization, and gardening was the first step in the 

 career of refinement ; but still it was an art in which 

 he last reaches perfection. When the savage 

 exchanges the wild and wandering life of a warrior 

 and hunter, for the confined and peaceful pursuits of 

 a planter, the harvests, herds, and flocks take the 

 place of the simple garden. The mechanic arts are 

 next developed ; then commerce commences, and 

 manufactures soon succeed. As wealth increases, 

 ambition manifests itself in the splendour of apparel, 

 of mansions, equipages, and entertainments. Science, 

 literature, and the fine arts are unfolded, and a high 

 degree of civilization is attained. It is not until all 

 this has taken place, that horticulture is cultivated as 

 one of the ornamental arts. 



Egypt, the cradle of civilization, so far perfected 

 her tillage, that the banks of the Nile were adorned 

 by a succession of luxuriant plantations, from the 

 cataract of Syene to the shores of the Delta ; but it 

 was when Thebes, with its hundred brazen gates, 

 and the cities of Memphis and Heliopolis, were ris- 

 ing in magnificence, and her stupendous pyramids, 

 obelisks, and temples, became the wonders of the 

 world. The hills and plains of Palestine were cele 

 brated for beautiful gardens; but it was not until 

 the walls and temple of Jerusalem announced the 

 power and intelligence of the Israelites, and the 

 prophets had rebuked their luxury and extrava- 

 gance. The queen of the East " had heard of the 

 fame of Solomon ;" his fleets had brought him the 

 gold of Ophir, and the treasures of Asia and Africa; 

 the kings of Tyre and Arabia were his tributaries, 

 and princes his merchants, when he "made orchards," 

 " delighted to dwell in gardens," and planted the 

 " vineyard of Baalhaman." The Assyrians had peo- 

 pled the borders of the Tigris and Euphrates, from 

 the Persian gulf to the mountainous regions of 

 Ararat, and their monarchs had founded Nineveh 

 and Babylon, before we hear of the gardens of 

 Semiramis. The Persian empire had extended from 

 the Indus to the Archipelago, when the paradise of 

 Sardis excited the astonishment of a Spartan general, 

 and Cyrus mustered the Grecian auxiliaries in the 

 spacious garden of Celsenas. The Greeks had 

 repulsed the invasions of Darius and Xerxes, 

 and Athens had reached the height of her glory, 

 when Cimon established the Academus, and pre- 

 sented it to his fellow citizens as a public gar- 

 den. Numerous others were soon planted, and dec- 

 orated with temples, porticoes, altars, statues, and 



