roncivo.] 



riiACTicE OK iioK'Pirri/ruRE. 



[llEBTlNO. 



CUAlTKll VIL 



yoRriNO ; rf.stint. ; r.riT.nixo ok ikit-iidisks ; Ari'LK'ATiuN of autikicial iikat; roxsTiircTiON of 

 builkr; dikkkkknt mopks ok ukatinc; scikntikio instkimknts ; 8olaii hkat; lkmit axu 



AlK ; TMK VIXKKY ; TllK I'EACU- UOL .sK ; TllK FlU-llOlHK ; THE Cll KltKY-HOlSB ; THE I'ISKKY ; TUB 

 MELOMiY : TUE CUCl'MUEU. 



FORCING. 



Ix tlio science of horticulture, the term 

 forcing si>j;nified the art of raising, by artificial 

 heat, plants", flowers, and fruits at an earlier 

 season than that to which nature has assigned 

 them. To what nation or people we are 

 indebted for the discovery of this art, we 



believe no one has yet shown ; at all events, ' dition in which it cannot grow. This ia 

 it could not have been made in those Oriental , analogous to its winter state. In reference to 



land, she, as a lady moving in the highe»t 

 circles, must have frequently beea regaled 

 w ith tlicm ut the tables of tlie gruut. 



RESTING. 



As there is a forcing system in the science 

 of horticulture, so is there a resting syhtem, 

 which consists in exposing a plant to a con- 



countries where the genial warmth of the 

 climate is such as to produce two or three 

 harvests within the year, and to furnish, spon- 

 taneously, successions of the finest fruits and 

 vegetables known to man. It must, there- 

 fore, have been made in some of the nations 

 of Europe where the climate is always more 

 or less variable and uncertain. From Martial 

 we learn that the Eomans were acquainted 

 with the use of hot-houses ; but whence they 

 borrowed the idea of their uses and structure 

 nowhere appears. Tiberius Caesar, being fond 

 of cucumbers, erected houses in his garden, 

 and had them heated by means of stoves 

 throughout the year. Pliny informs us that 

 they were grown in boxes, which were, in fine 

 weather, wheeled out into the open air, and 

 returned to their artificial abodes in the nights 

 or in cold weather. "With the construction of 

 flues the Romans were well acquainted, so 

 they possessed the knowledge of the means of 

 heating the houses constructed for the arti- 

 ficial ripening of their fruits and vegetables. 

 In England, hot-houses for the growing of 

 pUies do not seem to have been known in the 

 beginning of the eighteenth century. We 

 infer this from the fact, that Lady Mary 

 Wortley Montague, on her journey to Con- 

 stantinople, in 171G, makes the remark of 

 pine-apples having been served to table in the 

 dessert, at the Elector of Hanover's — a cir- 

 cumstance she had neither seen nor heard of 

 before. Had pines been then raised in Eng- 



what relates to forcing, this is a very important 

 point for consideration. " If we look over the 

 diirerent climates of the world," says the 

 author of the Theory of Horticulture, "we 

 sliall find that in each there are a season of 

 growth, and a season in which vegetation is 

 more or less suspended ; and that these 

 periodically alternate with the same regu- 

 larity as our summer and winter. I do not 

 know that there is in nature any exception to 

 this rule ; for even in the Tierra Tempeleda of 

 Mexico, where it is said that, at the height of 

 4,000 or 5,000 feet, there constantly reigns the 

 genial climate of spring, which does not vary 

 more than 8^ or 0° — intense heat and excessive 

 cold being alike unknown, and the mean 

 temperature varying from G8^ to 70° — we 

 cannot suppose that even in that favoured 

 region a season of repose is wanting ; for it is 

 diflicult to conceive how plants can exist, any 

 more than animals, in a state of incessant 

 excitement. Indeed, it is pretty evident that 

 these countries have a period when vegetation 

 ceases; for Xalefra belongs to the Tierra 

 Tempeleda ; and we know that Ipomosa 

 Purga, an inhabitant of its woods, dies down 

 annually, like our own Couvolvuli.^ We also 

 know that jonquils, hyacinths, and tulips, 

 when grown in the Bahamas, where they are 

 unable to take the rest which is natural to 

 them, refuse to flower." The author goes on 

 to say, that, although plants have naturally a 

 season of repose, their winter is not, in all 



0G3 



