210 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



tury, and it is probable that the greatest impetus which 

 it ever received was given by the establishment of the 

 Horticultural Society in 1805. By the exertions of this 

 association, full advantage has been gained from the 

 researches of travellers, and powerful incentives offered 

 for the experiments of ingenious and scientific men . 



At present, with the exception perhaps of Holland, 

 the*re is no country where the use of gardens is so 

 general as in our own. The humblest cottage is fre- 

 quently seen to be surrounded by a small spot, whence 

 may be drawn a wholesome and agreeable variety for 

 the frugal board of the inhabitants; and even in towns, 

 where the power of vegetation is scarcely able to with- 

 stand the effects of the confined and noxious atmo- 

 sphere, a few yards of soil are often appropriated to 

 the same purpose. 



' The laborious journeyman mechanic,' says Mr 

 Loudon, ' whose residence in large cities is often in 

 the air rather than on the earth, decorates his garret 

 window with a garden of pots. The debtor deprived 

 of personal liberty, and the pauper in the work-house, 

 divested of all property in external things, and without 

 any fixed object on which to place their affections, 

 sometimes resort to this symbol of territorial appro- 

 priation and enjoyment. So natural it is for all to 

 fancy they have an inherent right in the soil, and so 

 necessary to happiness to exercise the affections by 

 having some object on which to place them.'* 



It is unnecessary in this place to enlarge upon the 

 actual state of vegetable gardening in Great Britain. 

 How greatly advanced that state really is, will be made 

 evident from the perusal of the following pages, which 

 serve to record, among other things, the skill and in- 

 dustry of our countrymen in drawing together and 

 naturalizing upon our soil so many productions of 

 such distant regions for our innocent gratification. 



* London's Encyclopaedia of Gardening, p. 95. 



