GARDENING. 



GARDENING. 



aided Dr. Walker in selecting: the ground), was I 

 made first curator. (Loudon's Encyr. of Gard. \ 

 pp. 86, 10? 1, edit. 5.) 



Previous to this period, the number of exotics 

 cultivated in England probably did not exceed 

 1000 species; during this century above 5000 

 new ones were introduced. Some tolerably 

 correct idea may be formed of the improve- 

 ment arising to horticulture, from this spirit 

 of research after plants, by a knowledge that 

 in the first edition of Miller's Dictionary, in 

 1724, but 12 evergreens are mentioned. The 

 Christmas flower and aconite were rare, and 

 only to be purchased at Mr. Fairchild's nur- 

 sery at Hoxton. Only seven species of gera- 

 nium were then known. In the preface to the 

 eighth edition of the Dictionary, in 1768, the 

 number of plants cultivated in England are 

 stated to be more than double tlio.se which 

 were known in 1731. The publication of the 

 seventh edition of that work, in 1759, was of 

 the greatest benefit to horticulture. In it was 

 adopted the classical system of Linnaeus. It 

 gave a final blow to the invidious line of dis- 

 tinction which had existed between the gar- 

 dener and the botanist, and completed the 

 erection of the art of the former into a science, 

 which it had been long customary to esteem as 

 little more than a superior pursuit for a rustic. 

 From being merely practised by servants, it 

 became more extensively the study and the de- 

 light of many of the most scientific, and noble 

 individuals of England. Miller improved the 

 cultivation of the vine and the fig, and was 

 otherwise distinguished for his improvement 

 of the practice, as he had been of the science. 

 of gardening. Having thus decisively gained 

 the attention of men of science, the rapid pro- 

 gress of horticulture from this era is no longer 

 astonishing. The botanist applied his re- 

 searches to the increase of the inhabitants of 

 the garden, and the better explanation of their 

 habits. The vegetable physiologist adapted 

 his discoveries to practical purposes, by point- 

 ing out the organs and functions which are of 

 primary importance; and the chemist, by his 

 analysis, discovered their constituents, and was 

 consequently enabled to point out improve- 

 ments which practice could only have stum- 

 bled on by chance, and perhaps during a lapse 

 of ages. 



The general introduction of forcing houses 

 likewise gave to our science a new feature. 

 Green-houses, we have seen, were in use in the 

 17th century; but no regular structures, roofed 

 with glass, and artificially heated, existed until 

 the early part of the succeeding one. Though 

 a pine-apple had been presented by his gar- 

 dener to Charles II., it is certain that they were 

 only successfully cultivated here about 1723, 

 by Mr. Henry Talende, gardener to Sir Matthew 

 Decker at Richmond ; Mr. Loudon gives the 

 date as 1719. Mr. Bradley says, that Mr. 

 Talende having at length succeeded in ripen- 

 ing them, and rendered their culture " easy and 

 intelligible," he hopes bananas may flourish for 

 the future in many of our English gardens. 

 (Bradlcifs Gen. Treatise on Husb. and Gard.') 

 That forcing was rare, and but of late introduc- \ 

 tion, is further proved by Mr. Lawrence, who, 



in 1718, observes, that he had heard that the 

 Duke of Rutland, at Belvoir Castle in Lincoln- 

 shire, hastened his grapes by having fires 

 burning from Lady-day to Michaelmas behind 

 his sloped walls, a report to which he evidently 

 does not give implicit credence, but which " it 

 is easy to conceive." (Lawrence's Fruit Gard. 

 Cal. p. 22.) That such, however, was the fact, 

 is confirmed by Switzer, who further adds, in 

 1724, that they were covered with glass. The 

 walls were erected, he says, at the suggestior. 

 of Mr. Facio, whom we have before mentioned 

 The walls failing in their anticipated effect 

 were covered with glass, and thus led to the 

 first erection of a regular forcing structure of 

 which we have any account. (Siritzer's Practi- 

 cal Fruit Garden, p. 318.) Lady Wortley Mon- 

 tagu, in 1716, mentions having partaken of 

 pine-apples at the table of the elector of Hano- 

 ver ; and speaks of them as being a thing she 

 had never seen before, which, as her ladyship 

 moved in the highest English circles, she must, 

 had they been introduced to table here. 



Mr. Fowler, gardener to Sir N. Gould at 

 Stoke Newington, was the first to raise cucum- 

 bers in autumn, for fruiting about Christmas. 

 He presented the king, George I., with a brace 

 of full-grown ones on new year's day, 1721. 

 (liradl t -y'$ General Treatise an Husb. and Gard, 

 vol. ii. p. 61.) 



Even as late as the commencement of the 

 century we are tracing, every garden vegetable, 

 in a greater or less degree> was obtained from 

 Holland. The purveyors of the royal family 

 sent thither for fruits and pot-herbs; and the 

 seedsmen obtained from thence all their seeds. 

 But in 1727, Switzer boasts of the improve- 

 ments made in his art. Cucumbers, that 25 

 years before were never seen at table until the 

 close of May, were then always ready in the 

 first days of March, or earlier if tried for. Me- 

 lons were improved both in quality and earli- 

 ness. " The first, owing to the correspondence 

 that our nobility and gentry have abroad, now 

 equalling, if not excelling, the French and 

 Dutch in their curious collections of seed; but 

 the second is owing to the industry and skill 

 of our kitchen gardeners." Melons were now 

 cut at the end of April, which before were rare 

 in the middle of June. The season of the cau- 

 liflower being in perfection was prolonged 

 from three or four, to six or seven months. 

 Kidney-beans were now forced. The season 

 of peas and beans was extended to a period 

 from April until December, which previously 

 only lasted two or three months, &c. (Preface 

 to Switzer's Pract. Fruit Gard.) 



The early part of this century witnessed the 

 labours of Professor Bradley, who was one of 

 the first to treat of gardening and agriculture 

 as sciences. Although deficient in discoveries, 

 his works are not destitute of information de- 

 rived from contemporary gardeners and other 

 writers. He wrote luminously on the buds of 

 trees, on bulbs, and especially on the mode of 

 obtaining variegated plants and double flowers. 

 He must be looked upon as a benefactor of 

 horticulture, for he at least made himself ac- 

 quainted with the discoveries of others, and, 

 recordine them in his widely-circulated works 

 2X 517 



