110 HISTORY OF GARDENING. PART I. 



blished in and near Sidney, who collect seeds for England, and other parts of Europe ; 

 and it is in contemplation to establish a government botanic garden there, which will 

 doubtless be of essential service in collecting and preserving native plants. The climate 

 and soil of both settlements are favorable for horticulture. Potatoes, cabbages, carrots, 

 parsnips, turnips, and every species of vegetable known in England, are produced 

 in this colony. The cauliflower and broccoli, and the pea, arrive to greater perfection 

 than in Europe ; but the bean and potatoe degenerate. The climate is too hot for the 

 bean, and the potatoe is only grown to advantage on new lands. 



New South Wales is famed for the goodness and variety of its fruits ; peaches, apricots, nectarines, 

 oranges, grapes, pears, plums, figs, pomegranates, raspberries, strawberries, and melons of all sorts, attain 

 the highest degree of maturity in the open air; and even the pine-apple may be produced merely by the 

 aid of the common glass frame. The climate of Port Jackson, however, is not altogether congenial to the 

 growth of the apple, currant, and gooseberry, although the whole of these fruits are produced there, and 

 the apple in particular in very great abundance ; but it is decidedly inferior to the apple of Britain. In 

 Van Diemen's Land these fruits arrive at the greatest perfection ; and as the climate of the country to 

 the westward of the Blue Mountains is equally cold, they will, without doubt, attain there an equal 

 degree of excellence. Of all the fruits which are thus enumerated, as being produced in the colony, the 

 peach is the most abundant and the most useful. The different varieties which have been already intro. 

 duced succeed one another in uninterrupted succession from the middle of November to the latter end of 

 March, thus filling up an interval of more than four months, and affording a wholesome and nutritious 

 article of food during one-third of the year. The tree thrives in all soils and situations, and its growth is 

 so rapid, that if you plant a stone, it will, in three years afterwards, bear an abundant crop. The fruit is 

 the food of hogs, and when thrown into heaps, and allowed to undergo a proper degree of fermentation, 

 is found to fatten them very rapidly. Cyder is also made from it; and the lees also fatten hogs. 

 (Kingdom's British Colonies, p. 264.) 



504. Van Diemens Land. This settlement does not contain either such a variety or 

 abundance of fruit as the parent colony. The greater coldness of the climate 

 sufficiently accounts for the former deficiency, and the recency of its establishment 

 for the latter. The orange, citron, guava, loquat, pomegranate, and other fruits, which 

 attain the greatest perfection at Port Jackson, cannot be produced here without having 

 recourse to artifical means ; while others, as the peach, nectarine, grape, &c. only arrive 

 at a very inferior degree of maturity. On the other hand, the apple, currant, and goose- 

 berry, and indeed all those fruits for which the climate of New South Wales is too 

 warm, are raised here without difficulty. (Jftngdom's British Colonies, p. 300. } 



505. Cayenne. The French have a botanic garden, and several fine private gardens in 

 the fertile colony of Cayenne. A very interesting account of this colony and its pro- 

 ductions, natural and artificial, will be found in the Maison Rustique de Cayenne, 

 published by Prefontaine in 1763. 



506. Malta. There is a small botanic garden on this island, supported by the govern- 

 ment; and a late governor, Sir A. Balls, is said (Letters from Malta, 1817) to have 

 established public gardens at every village for the employment of the poor, and the 

 dissemination of useful seeds and plants among the farmers. No success attended this 

 measure, from mismanagement, as it is said, in the curators. Great part of Malta was 

 originally little better than a bare limestone-rock ; but this rock is full of cracks or 

 vertical fissures, which are filled with calcareous soil washed down from the surface. 

 This is dug up by the inhabitants, and re-spread over the surface ; and by means of 

 irrigation and careful culture, the cotton-plant is grown as an article of general economy. 

 In the more fertile part of the island, the orange-tribe are grown, and the Maltese, or 

 red-fleshed orange, being a variety in much esteem, there is some demand for young 

 trees as articles of foreign commerce. These trees are more scientifically trained and 

 inoculated than those of Genoa. 



BOOK II. 



GARDENING CONSIDERED AS TO ITS PROGRESS AND PRESENT STATE UNDER DIFFERENT 

 POLITICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL CIRCUMSTANCES. 



507. Every art must be affected by the government under which it is exercised, either 

 directly by its law* and institutions, or indirectly by the state of society as modified by 

 their influence. Gardening and agriculture differ from other arts in being still more 

 affected by climates than by governments ; the influence of the latter is temporary or 

 accidental, while that of the former is absolute and unchangeable. 



CHAP. I. 



Gardening as affected by different Forms of Government, Religions, and States of Society. 



508. All governments may be reduced to two classes; the primitive, or those where the 

 people are governed by the will or laws of one or a few persons independently of the 



