Vol. IX.— Nn. 23. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL 



181 



tion. Not any expense is spsired to keep it in a 

 jDoil stale, anil the earth repays witli nsnry what 

 ias been expended upon it. The country housesf 

 uid tlie tields are surrounded with fruit trees, such 

 is apples, pears, and cherries ; their trunks are 

 :loan and smooth, and if moss or lichens beg^in to 

 ippear, they are immediately destroyed by white 

 wash. Mr Filippar has remarked, that plums, 

 ipricots, and almonds wore rare, and he thinks 

 iat the climate is not favorable to these kinds of 

 trees, which are, in fact, of southern orirrin. How- 

 ever, it is not long since fruit trees have been ably 

 nd methodically managed in England ; and al- 

 hough the inhabitants highly value good and 

 eautiful fruit, immense quantities of common ap- 

 les are thrown upon their shore by our Norman 

 arks, with which the people appear to be satisfied, 

 ud eat them with avidity. 

 All the proprietaries are amateurs — the taste for 

 irdens extends from the highest to the lowest ; 

 id no one spares any expense which his condition 

 ill allow, and is necessary to obtain an enjoyment 

 universally appreciated. This inclination for 

 dulging- the natural taste, always renders men 

 ppv ; but as he who enjoys ought also to know 

 w to appreciate and manage the immediate in- 

 ument of his gratifications, it results, that in 

 igland, a good gardener is always treated with 

 ;pect — that his talents are everywhere duly es- 

 lated, and in requisition — that a proper support 

 lorably gained and liberally bestowed, gives 

 nquillity to the head of a l.iboring family, in re- 

 on to all which concerns him — that his mind, 

 •e free, is in equilibrium with his grateful heart, 

 that the gardener is pleased to increase and 

 oetuate the enjoyments which the master can 

 knows how to cherish. And it is not astonish- 

 to see good gardeners enjoy this consideration 

 *l England, when it is known that these men are 

 ii< erally well instructed ; that they do not cora- 

 ce their career until they have received a pri- 

 I y education, which is the foundation of success, 

 "' I II kinds of industrious occupation ; enfranchised 

 I that mere routine which elsewhere seems the 

 and sterile heritage of their profession, they 

 3 the labor of the body to that of the mind — 

 igthen their judgment by reflection and reason, 

 become able in their practical duties, in pro- 

 on as they have been rendered good observers. 

 (Filippar expresses the pleasure which he cx- 

 inced in meeting, among the English cultiva- 

 a multitude of men, who are not strangers to 

 aature of sciences — who perceiving that phy- 

 chemistry, and botany, are necessary to ena- 

 e» hem to account for the phenomena, which they 

 observe, in the course of their operations ; 

 !te he regrets that in France, the importance, or 

 •r the necessity of these studies is so little 

 ■ived ; and that the pupil, who has devoted 

 ;lf to them, is generally left confounded among 

 rowd of common laborers, and that the intel- 

 t cultivator finds it difficult to ascertain the 

 which he merits in the social scale, 

 e natural beauty of the country, and tlie 

 neatness which is every where con.spicnous, 

 rs it necessary for the English to liestow 

 care upon their gardens, to render thcni su- 

 " to the enclosures which are trierely enibel- 

 by nature. But whether they manage their 

 ins as English gartlens properly so called, — 

 ), according to their ideas, allows nature to be 

 ornamented and luxuriantly maintained, or 

 iS country or rural gardens, which is nature 



siin|dy mlonicd and kept in neat order, they al- 

 ways endeavor to lender their plantations a pic- 

 ture, which appears to have been composed by an 

 able painter, varying and contrasting the masses 

 by (litlerent tints, and in which are enchased, 

 grouped, or detached, all the factitious scenes, 

 wliicli the kinds of gardening allow, and which 

 'their artists of talents know perfectly well how to 

 connect with the whole design. We have in France 

 without doubt, beautiful gardens, which merit 

 being named ; but it cannot be done with the 

 same conviction of its propriety as when speak- 

 ing of those of England : it is in England that we 

 find, and where we can alone study, the difl'erence 

 which exists, between English Gardens, and 

 Landscape Gardens ; and if we ouglit not to at- 

 tempt to find in England, gardens like those of 

 the Thuileries, and the Luxembourg, — parks like 

 those of Versailles, and Trianon, or promenades 

 like our Champs Elysees, and our Boulevarts, the 

 English, instead of a majestic regularity, and a 

 pompous grandeur, have shown us gardens, very 

 siniple in appearance, that is, haying the merit of 

 exquisite perfection ; a merit much more seduc- 

 ing, because it never appears accompanied by 

 pretension. 



Mr Filippar knew how to examine the gardens 

 of England ; as an artist ami a cultivator ; he has 

 noticed in each kind of plantation the order and 

 connexion of every species of culture, which forms 

 a harmonious whole from divers parts, and the 

 most opposite to each other ; which renders it 

 easy to distribute all the labors with regularity, to 

 direct them with economy and success, and to 

 enjoy the whole with equal pleasure ; he has des- 

 cribed the solidity of the walks, the neat appear- 

 ance of the turf, the management of extensive 

 lawns, the formation of chimps of trees, the taste 

 which excludes the severe pruning of beautiful 

 isolated trees, the richness of the masses of 

 rosebuds, of heaths, and of magnolias, the happy 

 employment of resinous and evergreen trees ; then 

 abandoning those grand picturesque scenes and 

 quitting the country, he has endeavored to give us 

 an idea of those little town gardens, which decor- 

 ate the front of almost all the houses, and which 

 are seen in nearly all the streets, to which their 

 verdure and their flowers, protected by elegant 

 barriers, gives a similar aspect ; the beautiful 

 groups of trees and flowers, which surround the 

 slender iron balustrades, break up the monotony 

 of the public squares ; he describes the principal 

 parks of London, and expatiates on the exotic 

 riches, contained in the royal garden at Kew, re- 

 markable for its beautiful collection of North 

 American plants ; he assigns, as the reason why 

 such immense quantities of foreign trees and 

 shrubs, are found in these places, that the English 

 began to plant sooner than we did, in greater 

 quantities and over more extended surfaces. But 

 within a few years, beautiful exotic jdantations 

 have been commenced in France ; our gardens 

 are annually enriched by a great number of spe- 

 cies, hitherto but little known ; this taste increases 

 with the discoveries, our knowledge, and our la- 

 bors have taken a more happy direction, and our 

 gardens soon scattered over the country, will ex- 

 cel in the vegetable riches which are daily ac- 

 cumulating. 



Such are the general views which Mr Filippar, 

 has given of English Horticulture. Proceeding 

 immediately with his remarks on ornamental gar- 

 dens, he does not deny, that what are called 



flower gaMJcns, are not numerous in France, but 

 that several could be named which are siifticiently 

 characterised to be immediately distinguished, In 

 the other kinds of culture ; but he does not dis- 

 semble that the English are much richer, in that 

 kind which oflcrs so many more attractions, — 

 which is capable of being so variously developed, 

 and which can be accommodated to the fortunes, 

 or means of all classes. The flower garden, essen- 

 tially consists in a piece of ground, more or less 

 extended, destined for raising annual or vivacious 

 flowers, which arc taken u\i for ornamenting the 

 grounds, or are left in beds to luxuriate in masses. 

 This department among English cultures, has as- 

 sumed, for several years, an aspect entirely dif- 

 ferent from that which it still presents in our 

 gardens ; this difteience is chiefly in consequence 

 of the tardiness, with which new plants are intro- 

 duced into this country. These novel vegetables, 

 have already been modified by the care of the 

 English cultivators, and produce nuineious inter- 

 esting varieties, when we scarcely possess the type. 

 I will cite a single example : they have actually 

 abandoned tall Dahlias, — which they throw pell- 

 mell into masses, for the shorter varieties, which 

 present a sensible difl'erence in their appearance 

 and elevation, and which are cultivated like other 

 herbaceous plants, in beds, or collections. They 

 are only from 18 to 30 inches high. This dimin- 

 ution of the size of the plants has these advan- 

 tages, — they jiroduce as many flowers as the large, 

 can be placed everywhere, do not require so 

 much trouble to be supported, to protect them 

 against the violence of the winds, and are, there- 

 fore, more economically cultivated. On this sub- 

 ject I will add, th.at, having paid particular atten- 

 tion, to the multiplication of this new race, of 

 Dahlias, at Froinont, I have obtained a great num- 

 ber, which are so short, branch out so low, and 

 whose stalks and branches tend so strongly from 

 the herbaceous to the suftruticious, or jiartially 

 shrubby state, tliat they do not require any kind of 

 support. Among these are some, v.'hose branches 

 are straight and stiflT, and the flowers fixed, hori- 

 zontally, at their summits, and not hanging, or 

 concealed under the leaves, as in other species. 

 There are ot!iers whose stalks and branches are 

 much slenderer, having a less number of leaves 

 and which are covered with a number of much 

 larger flowers ; they produce, in the parterre, a 

 much richer eftect, for their numerous branches 

 being gently comjiressed round a little stake, by 

 a string, the bunches of flowers appear, at a dis- 

 tance like bouquets, which are not less interest- 

 ing from their duration, than for their splendor. 



Among the new flowers, which for sometime 

 have given such a distinct aspect to the flower 

 gardens of England, there is to be seen, before 

 the Dahlias, which develop their form and colors 

 under the heats of summer, the equally beautiful 

 and numerous genus of the Pjcimies, which, dis- 

 playing, in the spring, the most splendid shades of 

 white, carnation, rose, purple and variegated colors, 

 furnish single groups, which, at that period be- 

 come, alone, the ornament of the parterre. Lithe 

 course of that delightful season, the beautiful broo- 

 teated Poppy, the Clarkia pulchella, the Lupinus 

 polyphyllus, and the Elsholtzia of California, 

 develop, under forms peculiar to each genus, 

 their elegant, red, r»se, blue and yellow flowers, 

 while the musk-scented Mimulus, in a modest atti- 

 tude, exhales, at their feet, an aroma which per- 

 fumes the air ; and when retiring autumn threat- 



