68 HISTORY OF GARDENING. PART I. 



been led to entertain of the luxury and magnificence that reigns in the grand seignior's 

 seraglio. (Pouquevillc's Travels, translated by H. M. Williams.) 



310. Flower-gardening. " When the Turks," observes Deleuze, " by the taking of Con- 

 stantinople, had given stability to their empire, they devoted themselves particularly to 

 the culture of flowers." Belon, in 1558, speaks with admiration of the gardens which he 

 saw among them. " There are no people," he says, " who delight more to ornament 

 themselves with beautiful flowers, nor who praise them more, than the Turks. They 

 think little of their smell, but delight most in their appearance. They wear several sorts 

 singly in the folds of their turban ; and the artisans have often several flowers of different 

 colors before them, in vessels of water. Hence gardening is in as great repute with them 

 as with us ; and they grudge no expense in procuring foreign trees and plants, especially 

 such as have fine flowers." Busby, ambassador at Constantinople in 1550, has the same 

 remarks, and adds, that they frequently give flowers in presents ; and that, though very 

 avaricious in other things, they do not hesitate to pay dear for them. 



311. Of the horticulture of Turkey little is known, or how far the use of gardens is 

 general. " The capital of the Turkish empire," T. Thornton observes (Present State of 

 Turkey, 22.), " though the soil in its immediate vicinity is barren and ungrateful, 

 receives from the neighbouring villages, and from the surrounding coasts of both the seas 

 which it commands, all the culinary herbs and fruits of exquisite flavor which the most 

 fastidious appetite can require. On the shores on both sides of the Bosphorus the 

 ground forms a chain of schistous hills, covered with vineyards and gardens, and 

 beautiful trees and shrubs ; and the valleys, which are exceedingly fertile, are in the highest 

 state of cultivation.'* 



Of the botany and gardening of the Morea some account is given by Dr. Pouqueville. (Travels in 1798.) 

 " This country, formerly a part of Greece, is rich in vegetable productions, but at present proportionably 

 poor in cultivation. There is no great variety cultivated in the gardens ; the ground in general is iH 

 prepared ; the Greeks are unacquainted with the spade, and only use a mattock for turning it. Spinach 

 and artichokes, which will even grow naturally without cultivation, are among the best culinary veget- 

 ables. Cabbages and cauliflowers grow to a prodigious size ; they have also very good carrots. Beans 

 and French beans are produced in such abundance, that they might become an object of exportation ; but 

 the seeds of both are much smaller than ours in France. The lettuces are small ; and the celery never 

 will be good while, as at present, they do not earth it up. The tomatoes are very fine, as is the fruit 

 yielded by the melongena. The melons, water-melons, and gourds, are not to be exceeded in any part of 

 the world. Mint, balm, fennel, parsley, and other herbs, abound in the gardens. The orchards are well 

 furnished with almonds, oranges, lemons, citrons, peaches, pears, apricots, quinces, cherries, pomegranates, 

 medlars; they have also the arbutus, the service-tree, and the carob-tree; all these might be improved, if 

 more pains were taken in cultivating them." (p. 204.) The account which this author, and also Dr. Hol- 

 land (Albania and Greece, &c. 1812 and 1815), gives of the plants, the timber, and the fruit-trees, natives 

 of the Morea, is highly interesting; he regrets that he could not occupy himself more with the subject, 

 adding, that a botanist might compose a work worthy of the age in which we live, in undertaking a 

 complete Flora Peloponnesica. 



CHAP. IV. 



Of the Rise, Progress, and present State of Gardening in the British Isles. 



312. That gardening was introduced to Britain by the Romans, there can be but little 

 doubt. According to Strabo, writing in the fourth century, " The people of Britain 

 are generally ignorant of the art of cultivating gardens, as well as of other parts of agri- 

 culture" (lib. iii. p. 200.) ; but Tacitus, half a century afterwards (A. D. 79), informs 

 us, that " the soil and climate were very fit for all kinds of fruit-trees, except the vine and 

 the olive ; and for all plants and edible vegetables, except a few, which were peculiar to 

 hotter countries." (Vita Agric. cap. xiv.) Afterwards they found different parts of the 

 country not unfit for the vine ; and wine was made in England towards the end of the 

 third century, under the Emperor Probus. The remains of Roman villas discovered in 

 different parts of the .country may be considered as existing evidence that Roman gardening 

 was established, both as an art of taste, and of vegetable culture, by the generals and other 

 members of the government. Pliny expressly states, that cherries were introduced into 

 Britain about the middle of the first century : they had been brought to Italy by Lucullus 

 only a century before. 



313. Modem British gardening seems to have received its first stimulus during the 

 reign of Henry VIII. ; a second powerful impulse in the time of Charles II., with the 

 splendid style of Le Notre ; again, with the introduction of the modern style during the 

 reign of Geo. II. ; next, in the early part of the reign of Geo. III. with the plants of 

 North America, and finally through the establishment of the Horticultural Society during 

 the regency. 



314. The outline of gardening history here submitted will be found amply illustrated 

 by the literature and topography of British gardening in Part IV., and indeed by all 

 the other chapters on the statistics of British gardening. 



