Review of Loudon^s Gardener's Magazine. 145 



REVIEWS. 



Art. I. The Gardener^ s Magazine and Register of Rural and 

 Domestic Improvements. Conducted by J. C. Loudon, F. L. 

 S., H, S., &;c. In Monthly Numbers. 8vo. Is. Qd. each. No 

 LXIX for December. 



The number of this valuable Magazine for December contains 

 a long article, by the conductor, of upwards of twenty-five pages, 

 entitled " A Summary View of the Progress of Gardening, and of 

 rural Improvement generally, in Britain, during the past year ; with 

 some notices relative to the state of both in foreign countries.'* 



In taking a view of the progress of gardening, the conductor has 

 made two principal divisions, viz., — Gardening as an art, and the 

 Statistics of Gardening. Under the former is included landscape 

 gardening, arboriculture, floriculture, and horticulture. 



Landscape gardening is, as yet, the least understood of any de- 

 partment. According to some, no such thing existed, until the 

 modern or natural style of laying out grounds was introduced ; ac- 

 cording to others, it includes every mode of laying out grounds, 

 either ancient or modern. Used in this latter sense, the conductor 

 claims the merit of having, in the several volumes of the Magazine, 

 distinguished and defined the four different modes of creating artifi- 

 cial landscapes, which constitute the geometrical, the picturesque, 

 the gardenesque, and the rural styles. These are, we apprehend, 

 not generally understood, and we therefore extract the following 

 remarks, and commend them to the attention of every reader : — 



" The geometrical style consists in laying out and planting gi'ounds in 

 geometrical figiu-es. The picturesque style is characterized, in regard to 

 means, by the trees and shrubs being planted at irregular distances, as 

 they are in natural forests and forest groups ; and, in regard to effect, by 

 its forming such masses of wood, and groups of trees and shrubs, and 

 such a general union of these in compositions, as will look well, if paint- 

 ed. The gardenesque style of landscape is characterized, as to means, 

 by the trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, whether in masses or groups, 

 being planted at such distances as never to be allowed to touch each 

 other ; and, in regard to effect, by masses and groupg, which, while they 

 show the forzn of each individual tree and shrub at a near view, yet, at a 

 distance, form masses and groups such as, though they would not be 

 made choice of, in preference, yet would not be rejected by a landscape- 

 painter. Comparing the picturesque and the gardenesque styles of land- 

 scape, the former may be said to study most the effect of the whole, as a 

 picture or landscape, which might be painted ; and the latter the beauties 

 of the whole, as a garden scene for walking m, and enjoying the trees 

 and plants individually. Compared as to the intensity and dm-ation of 

 the enjoyment, the picturesque style may be said to address itself chiefly 

 to one class of admirers, viz., the lovers of landscape scenery ; and the 

 gardenesque not only to the lovers of landscape scenery, but to the bot- 



VOL. II. NO. IV. 19 



