NINETEENTH CENTURY 267 



something towards the progress of gardening. There have 

 been practical gardeners and nurserymen, great botanists and 

 men of knowledge and daring, whose lives have been risked 

 in the cause of science, and to whose courage and perseverance 

 the modem garden owes so many of its treasures. 



While the rage for landscape gardening was at its height, 

 there were many skilful gardeners busy in a quiet way carrying 

 on the work of horticulture. One of these was Abercrombie, 

 whose writings were popular for many years. He was the 

 son of a market-gardener near Edinburgh, and was born in the 

 year 1726. The Battle of Preston Pans was fought close to 

 his father's garden wall, and he was present at the time. His 

 first place as gardener was with Sir James Douglas, and later 

 on he married a relative of his former employer. In 1770 he 

 settled with his family, consisting of two sons and sixteen 

 daughters, between Mile End and Hackney, and there started 

 a nursery garden. His first book. Every Man his own Gardener, 

 came out in 1767, and he was so afraid of failure that he paid 

 Mawe, gardener to the Duke of Leeds, the sum of ;^20 to allow 

 his name also to appear on the title-page. Hence the book 

 has become known as the work of Mawe and Abercrombie, 

 although the latter wrote it entirely. His other writings, 

 Amateur Gardening, The Gardener's Daily Assistant, and such- 

 like, were equally popular, and were considered the standard 

 works on the subject for upwards of fifty years. Another book 

 of this date, by William Hanbury, also gives full directions for 

 the cultivation of a great number of trees, shrubs, perennial and 

 annual hardy flowers, and green-house and stove plants. ■"■ Many 

 which had just been introduced find a place in these books, such 

 as the Rhododendron Ponti cum, Azalea nudiflora, or " American 

 upright honeysuckle," as Hanbury calls it; Andromeda polifolia; 

 varieties of Allspice (Calycanthus), of Sumach (Rhus), and of 

 Magnolia {grandiflora and others) ; the snowdrop tree (Halesia), 

 Hydrangeas, and Spiraeas, and other hardy plants. There 

 were also many additions to the half-hardy and stove plants — 

 Crinum capense, or " lily Asphodel," and the more tender 

 Belladonna lUy {Amaryllis Belladonna). The Scarborough lily 



^ Complete Body of Planting and Gardening, by Wm. Hanbury, 1770, 

 2 vols., folio. 



