Hoi'ticulture in the United States. 277 



sible regions, which will not come into cultivation for ages. It will, of 

 course, have a better chance, not to share the fate of the most useful tim- 

 ber on the valuable uplands. The improvident axe soon renders timber 

 difficult to be procured, in a country in the centre of forests. All the 

 cypress forests, however, that are easily accessible, on the Lower Mis- 

 sissippi, and its tributaries, have been stripped of their timber by the Mis- 

 sissippi lumberers, who have floated to New Orleans millions of feet of 

 this timber, from the lands of the United States, and who have already 

 created a scarcity of this species on the margin of the Mississippi. There 

 are, however, in the vast swamps of the Mississippi, Arkansas, Red River, 

 and Florida, inexhaustible supplies of cjpress still remaining.' " (^Flbifs 

 Geography and History of the Western States, vol. i. pp. G2, 63.) 



Cypress trees, the roots of which present similar appearances on a less 

 scale, may be seen in the Duke of Northumberland's grounds at Syon, at 

 Blenheim, and various other places in England, and in the grounds of the 

 Petit Trianon, in the neighbourhood of Paris. — Cond. 



Art. IV. Notices of some of the principal Nurseries and private 

 Gardens in the United States of America, made dtiring a Tour 

 through the Countrij, in the Summer o/'1831 ; •with some Hints on 

 Emigration. By Mr. Alexander Gordon. 



Sir, 



Having performed another trip to the United States of 

 America, I beg leave to offer a few remarks on the state of 

 gardening in that dehghtful country. During my tour in the 

 years 1827 and 1828, it was impossible for me to visit so 

 many of the horticultural establishments as I wished ; but I 

 have, during my last visit, extended my observations much 

 farther : and, in the hope that they may be gratifying to the 

 readers of this Magazine, I now avail myself of a few leisure 

 hours to arrange them for their perusal. 



Gardening, in the United States of America, can never 

 arrive at that degree of perfection which it has done in Eng- 

 land : tl>e nature of the American government makes this 

 utterly impossible. The abolition of entails, and the repeal 

 of the law of primogeniture, naturally break down into small 

 portions the estates of even the greatest landholders. It is no 

 uncommon circumstance in America to find lands, formerly 

 held by one proprietor, now divided into forty or fifty parcels, 

 belonging to as many different persons; so that gardening, 

 to any considerable extent, by individuals, cannot be carried 

 on in the same manner as if those possessions were concen- 

 trated in the hands of one person. The moment the proprietor 

 dies, his land is equally divided among his children; and, by 

 thus falling into many hands, no one has the means, if he 

 had the inclination, to keep a garden in the manner, and 

 to the extent, which is done by English noblemen and gen- 

 tlemen. Still, this may be remedied, by uniting, and forming 



T 3 



