HORTICULTURE 



HORTICULTURE 



1503 



decoration in summer; so pronounced has this become 

 that the only difference between the commercial estab- 

 lishment of today and the average private greenhouse 

 is one of size and architecture. The latter instead of 

 being maintained, as it should be, purely to gratify 

 esthetic tastes, is devoted to an utilitarian purpose 

 mainly. The product is counted and reckoned at so 

 many dollars and cents. The most the average owner 

 sees of them is the daily or semi-weekly cut which is 

 sent to the house. This is not as it should be, and 

 while it is not the gardener's fault, and may not be 

 within his power to control, yet by well-timed sugges- 

 tion and persistence, he should be able to effect a grad- 

 ual and much-to-be-desired change. 



1850. Early picture of an American plant. Monardes (1571). 



"The greenhouses should be a place of recreation 

 for the owners, who should be induced to visit them 

 daily, to look forward with pleasure to that visit, and 

 the best way to accomphsh this is to induce them to get 

 a good collection of plants. A house of roses, carna- 

 tions, violets or chrysanthemums has not the attrac- 

 tion of a varied collection, a collection, too, that 

 embraces in their season gloxinias, tuberous begonias, 

 cinerarias, cyclamens, caladiums, ixias, sparaxis, 

 primulas, and other seasonable pot-plants, both flower- 

 ing and ornamental foliage. It is freely admitted that 

 variety is the soul of gardening and not less so in small 

 than in large places. The individual preferences of 

 the i)roprietor or gardener should therefore in some 

 measure be rendered subservient to the amount of 

 pleasure which visitors are sure to obtain from a variety 

 of plants. I am well aware that in many places the 

 proprietor's residence is of short duration and very 

 often during the summer months only, so that it is 

 difficult, nay, well nigh impossible, for the gardener to 



influence him in the right direction; but if all earnestly 

 try, some are sure to succeed, and the example once set. 

 it will soon become general." 



Of horticulture there are two general types, — that 

 associated immediately with the home life, and that 

 undertaken primarily for the gaining of a livelihood. 

 The former is amateur horticulture. Those things are 

 grown that appeal to the personal tastes: they are 

 grown for oneself. The latter is commercial horticul- 

 ture. Those things are grown that -the market demands: 

 they are grown for others. In all countries, commercial 

 horticulture is a relatively late development. General 

 agriculture is usually the primary means of earning a 

 living from the soil. For the most part, horticulture 

 comes only with the demand for the lu.xiiries and 

 refinements of hfe; it does not deal with what we call 

 the staple food-stuffs. 



It is not the purpose of this sketch to trace the gen- 

 eral history of horticulture. If one desires such out- 

 lines, he should consult the Bohn edition of Pliny's 

 "Natural History;" Loudon's "Encyclopaedia of Garden- 

 ing;" G. W. Johnson's "Historj' of English Gardening;" 

 Amherst's "History of Gardening in England;" Sievek- 

 ing's "Gardens, Ancient and Modern;" Jager's "Gar- 

 tenkunst und Garten, sonst und jetzt;" Huttig's 

 "Geschichte des Gartenbaues ;" the historical chap- 

 ters of Andre's "L'Art des Jardins." Mangin's "His- 

 toire des Jardins Anciens et Modemes." For the his- 

 tories of cultivated plants, see DeCandoUe's "Origin of 

 Cultivated Plants;" Hehn & Stallybrass' "Wanderings 

 of Plants and Animals from their first Home;" Picker- 

 ing's "Chronological History of Plants." 



Early American history. 



In North America there was little commercial horti- 

 culture before the opening of the nineteenth century. 

 There were excellent home gardens more than a century 

 ago, in which many exotic plants were growing; yet, in 

 proportion to the whole population, these gardens were 

 isolated. The status of any modern time is accurately 

 reflected in its writings. It may be well, therefore, to 

 bring in review the leading early horticultural WTitings 

 of this country. Few studies have been made of our hor- 

 ticultural history. The best is the introductory sketch, 

 by Robert Manning, in the "History of the Massachu- 

 setts Horticultural Society," 18S0. For its field, Slade's 

 "Evolution of Horticulture in New England," 1895, is 

 interesting. In a still narrower field, Boardman's 

 "Agricultural Bibhography of Maine" is critical and 

 invaluable. The chapter on "American Horticulture," 

 by Alfred Henderson, in Depew's "One Hundred Years 

 of American Commerce," 1895, presents the commer- 

 cial side of the subject. Another fragment of the his- 

 tory is presented in the writer's "Sketch of the Evolu- 

 tion of our Native Fruits," 1898. Histories from sev- 

 eral points of view are presented in the "Florists' 

 Exchange" for March 30, 1895; and the writer has 

 incorporated parts of his own contribution to that his- 

 tory in the sketch that follows. One may find valua- 

 ble historical material in the reports of societies 

 devoted to horticulture and agriculture; and the files 

 of the early journals must not be overlooked. Local 

 histories are important. All these sources have not yet 

 been carefully explored. 



The history of the subject needs to be written from 

 the economic side, as one part in the industrial history 

 of North America, but this has not yet been attempted. 

 The best that may be done here is to trace some of the 

 events from the side of the hterature. 



The earliest writings on American plants were by 

 physicians and naturalists who desired to exploit the 

 wonders of the newly discovered hemisphere. The 

 earliest separate writing is probably that of Nicolo 

 Monardes on the products of the New World, which was 

 published in Seville in parts, from 1565 to 1571. The 

 completed treatise was translated into Italian, Latin, 



