HORTICULTURE. 



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triumphal monuments ; but this was during the 

 polished age of Pericles, when Socrates and Plato 

 taught philosophy in the sacred groves ; when the 

 theatre was thronged to listen to the poetry of Euri- 

 pides and Aristophanes ; when the genius of Phidias 

 was displayed in rearing the Parthenon and sculptur- 

 ing the statues of the gods ; when eloquence and 

 painting had reached perfection, and history was 

 illustrated by Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon. 

 Rome had subjugated the world, and emulated Athens 

 in literature, science, and the arts, when the superb 

 villas of Sallust, Crassus, Pompey, Caesar, Maecenas, 

 and Agrippina were erected, and the palaces of the 

 emperors were environed by magnificent gardens. 



The history of modern nations presents similar 

 results. Horticulture long lingered in the rear of 

 other pursuits. Most of the common fruits, flowers, 

 and oleraceous vegetables which had been collected 

 by the Greeks and Romans, from Egypt, Asia, and 

 other distant climes, were successively extended over 

 Western Europe ; but so gradual was their progress, 

 after the dark ages, that till the reign of Henry 

 VIII., scarcely any kitchen vegetables were culti- 

 vated in England, and the small quantity consumed 

 >vas imported from Holland. Fuller observes, that 

 " gardening was first brought into England, for 

 profit, about the commencement of the seventeenth 

 century. Peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, pears, 

 cherries, strawberries, melons, and grapes, were 

 luxuries but little enjoyed before the time of Charles 

 II., who introduced French gardening at Hampton 

 court, Carlton, and Malborough, and built the first hot 

 and ice houses. At this period, Evelyn translated 

 the Complete Gardener," and a treatise on orange 

 trees, by Quintinyne ; and, having devoted the re- 

 mainder of his life to the cultivation of his rural seat 

 at Sayes court, near Deptford, and the publication of 

 his Sylva, Terra, Pomona arid Acetaria, he " first 

 taught gardening to speak proper English." 



In the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Italy, a 

 formal and very imperfect system of gardening was 

 practised, with considerable success ; but was gene- 

 rally in a languishing condition, throughout the 

 world, until the commencement of the eighteenth 

 century, when it attracted the attention of some of 

 the first characters of Great Britain ; but the estab- 

 lishment of the present improved style of horticulture 

 is of very recent date. '* Bacon was the prophet, 

 Milton the herald, and Addison, Pope, and Kent the 

 champions of true taste." The principles which were 

 developed in their writings, and those of Shenstone, 

 the Masons and Wheatly, were successfully applied by 

 Bridgeman, Wright, Brown, and Eames ; the system 

 soon became popular, and gradually extended over 

 Europe, and ultimately reached America. But the 

 labours of the London horticultural society have 

 mainly contributed to the perfection and present 

 high estimation of gardening. That noble institution 

 has given an impetus to cultivation, which is felt in 

 the remotest countries. Its example has been follow- 

 ed in the most flourishing kingdoms of Europe, and 

 many similar institutions have been founded in the 

 United States of America. The effect of these is to 

 diffuse through every country the knowledge and 

 products of all. 



The history, literature, and science of gardening, 

 open a wide field for study and inquiry. The pleasure 

 which gardens afforded men, even in the earliest 

 times, appears from the scriptural account of the 

 garden of Eden. The garden of Gethsemane, and 

 that of the good and just Arimathean, are memorable 

 in the sacred history of the Messiah. The Elysian 

 fields were the heaven of classic mythology, and the 

 devout Mussulman hopes to renew his existence in a 

 celestial paradise. The bards, scholars, and philoso- 



phers of the classic ages, have transmitted descriptions 

 of the gardens of the ancients, from those in which 

 Homer places the palace of Alcinous and the cottage 

 of Laertes, to the splendid villas of Pliny and Lucul- 

 lus. Among the ancient Greek writers, Hesiod, 

 Theophrastus, Xenophon, and ^Elian treated of 

 gardens to a certain extent ; and works of those 

 who wrote after the seat of government was removed 

 to Constantinople, were collected under the title of 

 Geoponica, and have been translated by Owen. 

 Among the Latins, Varro was the first author, to 

 whom succeeded Cato, Pliny the Elder, Columella 

 and Palladius. Passages are to be found, relative to 

 the subject, in Martial, Virgil, and Horace ; but 

 Pliny's Natural History, and Columella's book on 

 gardens, contain the most correct information on 

 Roman horticulture. 



Literature and the arts having revived in Italy, 

 that country was the first to produce books on agricul- 

 ture and gardening, and that of Crescenzia became 

 celebrated. The field, and garden cultures of Italy 

 are so nearly allied, and horticulture and agriculture 

 have been so blended by the writers, that it is difficult 

 to ascertain under which department to include their 

 works. The best for general information on the 

 tillage of that delightful region, is the Annali dell' 

 Agricoltura. The Germans, as in all the branches 

 of letters, science, and arts, have an immense number 

 of books in the department of gardening, especially 

 on the subject of planting and forest trees. Those 

 which furnish the best idea of the state of culture in 

 that country, are Dietrich's Worterbuch, with the sup- 

 plement of 1820, and Sickler's Deutsche Handwirt- 

 schaft. The Dutch excel more in the practice than 

 the literature of gardening. They have no work of 

 very recent date ; that of Commelin, which was pub- 

 lished about the middle of the seventeenth century, 

 is among the earliest ; and those of La Court and 

 Van Osten are said to be among the best that have 

 appeared. The Journal of a Horticultural Tour in 

 Holland and Flanders, by a deputation of the 

 Caledonian horticultural society, gives the most 

 satisfactory account of gardening in that part of the 

 continent, in 1817. The Transactions of the Stock- 

 holm and Upsal academies furnish the chief informa- 

 tion which is to be obtained, in relation to the rural 

 economy of Sweden. The first author was Rudbeck, 

 who was a contemporary of Commelin. Russia and 

 Poland have produced but very few original books on 

 horticulture. The Agricultural Transactions occa- 

 sionally published by a society in Warsaw, with those 

 of the Economical Society of St Petersburg, may be 

 considered as affording the most accurate intelligence 

 as to the culture of those countries. In the latter city 

 is an extensive imperial botanical garden, which, being 

 under the direction of able professors, emulates those 

 of the more favoured portions of Southern Europe. 

 The only recorded source for obtaining any know- 

 ledge of Spanish tillage, are the Transactions of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society of Madrid. The horticul- 

 tural literature of France is of an early date, and the 

 authors are not only numerous, but many of them in 

 the highest repute. Etienne and Belon were the 

 pioneers, while Du Hamel, Girardin, D'Argenville, 

 Rosier, Tessier, Calvel, Noisette, Du Petit Thours, 

 Jean and Gabriel Thouin, Bosc and Vicomte Hericart 

 de Thury,may be considered as among the most able 

 of their followers, in the various branches of rural 

 economy. For a general knowledge of French cul- 

 ture, the Nouveau Cours d' 'Agriculture, in thirteen 

 volumes, published in 1810, should be consulted ; but 

 the most valuable publications on the existing mode 

 of gardening, are the monthly Annales de la Societf 

 d' Horticulture, the Annales de VInstitut Royal Hor- 

 ticote de Framont, and the Bon Jardinier, an annual 



