184 



HORTICULTURE. 



Botanic 



Metrosideros lanceolate flowers every year, and here 

 may be seen the finest specimen in the three kingdoms, 

 perhaps, of Ligustrum lucidum, or the wax-tree of Chi- 

 na, and which escaped unhurt in this situation, during 

 the severe winter of 1813, when the original plant 

 from which it was taken perished in England. There 

 is in the garden a general arrangement of herbaceous, 

 perennial, and biennial plants ; the annual plants a.nd 

 the gramina being each kept separate. Although the 

 space is small, there is not only a Fruticetum, but an 

 Arboretum; and, with equal taste and judgment, the 

 principal part of this last is so contrived as to serve for 

 a screen to give shelter to the rest of the garden. There 

 is an extensive collection of the hardy medicinal plants, 

 arranged according to Jussieu's method. There is only 

 one stove and one greenhouse ; but the exotics cultiva- 

 ted in these are curious and numerous. Upon the 

 whole, this small botanic garden contains a richer and 

 more varied collection than is perhaps to be found any 

 where else in Europe within the same compass. It 

 does honour to the liberality and public spirit of the 

 heads of the College ; and they seem to have been pe- 

 culiarly fortunate in their gardener, (Mr James Towns- 

 end Mackay, originally from the Botanic Garden at 

 Edinburgh), who has here proved, that, to a thorough 

 knowledge of practical horticulture, and extensive ac- 

 quisitions in botany, he adds an acquaintance with the 

 principles of landscape gardening. 



Edinburgh. 29. The Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh was 

 planned, in 176'7, by Dr John Hope, then professor of 

 botany. The collection of plants, both hardy and ten- 

 der, formed by Dr Hope, was uncommonly great ; and 

 some of the rarer trees and shrubs planted by him now 

 afford admirable full grown specimens : the Constanti- 

 nople hazel, ( Corylus column, ) for example, now ap- 

 pears as a fine and lofty tree. The assaf cetida plant was 

 here first cultivated, by the Doctor, m the open air in 

 this country. The quarter where it grew was shelter- 

 ed by a yew hedge, and saw-dust was generally laid 

 over the root of the plant during winter. There are 

 two hot-houses, a dry stove, and a large greenhouse ; 

 all of them at present in a state of decay ; but likely 

 soon to be rebuilt in a magnificent style, and on an exten- 

 sive scale. Dr Hope was a zealous disciple of Linnaeus, 

 and on the death of that illustrious botanist, he placed 

 in the garden a square monument, surmounted by an 

 urn, with the simple inscription, " Linnaeo posuit Jo. 

 Hope, 1779-" It deserves to be recorded, that in the 

 dry stove a dragon's-blood tree (Draccena draco) plant- 

 ed by the Doctor, attained the height of thirty feet, ex- 

 actly double that of the largest specimen of the plant at 

 Kew ; but this invaluable plant, which ought to have 

 been the pride and boast of the Scottish capital, abso- 

 lutely perished, owing to the want of funds for raising 

 the glass-roof of the house ! In this garden lectures 

 are delivered by Dr Daniel Rutherford, Professor of 

 botany in the University of Edinburgh. The herbari- 

 um of the late Dr Hope is kept at the garden. The 

 present superintendant is Mr William Macnab, who was 

 bred at Kew Gardens, and who is at once an excellent 

 cultivator of plants and an acute botanist. Under his 

 management the collection of hardy herbaceous plants 

 lias been so greatly enlarged, that it is now excelled 

 only by that at Kew Gardens. 



Private Gardens. 



hardens of 30. MANT of the private gardens in this country are, 



nobility and { t { s believed, superior, in some respects to those of any 



other. They are maintained in a more liberal style ; 



Private 

 Gardens. 



and the products are not only plentiful, but every kind 

 of fruit and culinary vegetable is of the first quality of 

 its kind. It may be affirmed, that in Britain a gentleman 

 may derive from his own garden, with the aid of glass and 

 of fire-heat, a more varied and richer dessert, through- 

 out the year, than is to be met with on the most luxurious 

 table in any other country. To prove this assertion, it 

 will be enough to run over the fruits successively af- 

 forded throughout the year, by a well-conducted Bri- Variety of 

 tish garden. Strawberries, planted in pots and forced lrims P ro 

 in a hot-house, produce their fruit about the middle of jj ntB j n . 

 April, and forced cherries are ready at the same time. 

 These are followed by early melons, about the begin- 

 ning of May. In June the first forced grapes and 

 peaches are ready for the table, with the luscious pine- . 

 apple : may-duke cherries on good exposures now ri- 

 pen, and different kinds of strawberries in the open 

 ground are abundant. These, with early melons, grapes, 

 peaches, nectarines, and pine-apples, continue plentiful 

 till August, when the currant and gooseberry come in. 

 By the middle of August the early pears are ready, and 

 the later houses of peaches, nectarines, and grapes are 

 in perfection, with melons ; and by September, the open 

 wall crops of peaches, apricots, and nectarines, green- 

 gage plums, and jargonelle pears, with the late preser- 

 ved gooseberries and currants, and the early jenneting 

 and oslin apples, swell the dessert. In October, late 

 crops of melons and grapes, with peaches, nectarine?, 

 and figs, join themselves with the ripening apples and 

 pears ; till, towards the end of it, the careful horticultu- 

 rist gathers and stores the remaining fruits of his la- 

 bours, that he may possess a supply during the winter 

 season. The autumn pears, such as the beurre and the 

 crassane, are in season till the new year ; when the col- 

 mart, St Germain, and chaumontel, still prolong the suc- 

 cession of pears : then many varieties of keeping apples 

 present themselves, till the season revolve, when early 

 strawberries, cherries, and melons may again be procu- 

 red. Several fruits not generally cultivated, such as 

 oranges and shaddocks, have not here been enumera- 

 ted ; and our nuts, such as filberds and walnuts, are 

 intentionally omitted. 



The general extent of the walled garden is from 

 two to five acres. It is to be observed, that a walled 

 garden of three or four acres at the present day, affords 

 as much space for the production of fruits and kitchen 

 vegetables, as did a garden of perhaps five or six acres 

 at the end of the 17th or beginning of the 18th centu- 

 ry, when the garden was invariably connected with 

 the mansion-house ; so that the portion next the house 

 was naturally laid out as a parterre, and large spaces were 

 occupied by arbours, fountains, and grass-plats for sta- 

 tues or obelisks. A very few only of our modern fine 

 gardens can here be particularized. In all of them, 

 fruits and vegetables are cultivated with great care, and 

 with remarkable success. In most of those to be now 

 specified, besides these more ordinary productions, 

 there are _rich collections of curious and ornamental 

 plants. 



31. To begin with England. The gardens at Chis- 

 wiek House, the seat of the Duke of Devonshire, near 

 Kew Bridge, are very extensive, and remarkable for 

 containing a most magnificent range of hot-houses. At 

 White Knights, near Reading, the Marquis of Bland- 

 ford has a very complete garden, distinguished more es- 

 pecially for a choice collection of ornamental plants. 

 Spring-Grove, near Blackheath, the seat of the illustri- 

 ous President of the Royal Society Sir Joseph Banks, 

 affords a very fair example of a well kept English gar- 

 den. Here, in the open air, grows a noble specimen of 



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