THE MAGAZINE 



OF 



HORTICULTURE. 



APRIL, 1847. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. Horticulture of the Past, as compared with the Pres- 

 ent. By T. S. Htjmrickhouse, Coshocton, Ohio. 



At this remote distance of time, it is very difficult for us to 

 estimate justly what proficiency the Antients may have had 

 in Horticulture. Evelyn did not rate it very high. In a let- 

 ter to Mr. Wotton, he says : — " Concerning the gardening and 

 husbandry of the Antients, which is your inquirie (especially 

 of the first), that it had certainly nothing approaching the 

 elegancy of the present age, Rapinus (whom I send you) will 

 abundantly satisfy you. The discourse you will find at the 

 end of Hortorum, lib. 4. capp. 6, 7. What they called their 

 gardens were only spacious plots of ground planted with pla- 

 tans and other shady trees in walkes, and built about with 

 porticos, xisti, and noble ranges of pillars, adorned with stat- 

 ues, fountaines, piscariae, aviaries, &c. But for the flowery 

 parterre, beds of tulips, carnations, auricula, tuberose, jon- 

 quills, ranunculus, and other of our rare coronaries, we hear 

 nothing of, nor that they had such store and variety of rare 

 exoticks, orangeries, myrtils, and other curious greens ; nor 

 do I believe they had their orchards in such perfection, nor 

 by far our furniture for the kitchen. Pliny, indeed, enume- 

 rates a world of vulgar plants and olitories, but they fall in- 

 finitely short of our physic gardens, books, and herbals, eve- 

 ry day augmented by our sedulous botanists, and brought to 

 us from all quarters of the world. And as for their husband- 

 ry and moie rural skill, of which the same author has written 



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