Gardening in Poland. 375 



Art. III. On the present State of Gardening in Poland. By 

 W. P. A. M. Kitaiewski, Professor of Chemistry in the 

 University of Warsaw. 



Dear Sir, 



I have read with much pleasure the first number of your 

 valuable Magazine. At your request, I promised to give you 

 some account of the present state of the art of gardening in 

 my country; and the few following notices are all that I am 

 able to communicate. 



The love of gardening has been in all times very remark- 

 able in Poland, and this art has made great progress during 

 the last ten years ; but the culture of plants has made more 

 improvement within that period than landscape gardening, or 

 the tasteful laying out of pleasure-grounds. Kitchen-garden- 

 ing has been brought to such a degree of perfection, and is 

 so generally practised, that the metropolis of the country, as 

 well as the other towns, is provided with the utmost variety 

 of the finest vegetables in every season. As to the culture of 

 fruit trees, there are some private gardeners of the first-rate 

 talents, and especially those of Warsaw and Cracow, whose 

 endeavours are directed exclusively to the forcing of fruit 

 trees, and they know well the culture of the vine ; some of 

 them are also very famous for the culture of the pine-apple. 



But most money is spent on flower-gardens, and for the 

 culture of rare exotic plants in hot-houses and green-houses. 

 The taste for this part of gardening is very general among 

 the richer classes of society, and the ladies especially are very 

 fond of it. In the culture of useful plants, and the dissemin- 

 ation of that kind of knowledge among the lower classes of 

 society, the Count Wodzicki's patriotic and liberal endea- 

 vours are generally acknowledged by his countrymen. His 

 large garden at Neidzwiedz, near Cracow, and the Gardener's 

 Dictionary published by him, bear witness to his merit in this 

 department. 



The proprietors of large estates in Poland, are generally 

 very ambitious of possessing parks and beautiful pleasure- 

 grounds. In laying out new residences, much care is em- 

 ployed, and the continual improvements made in this depart- 

 ment testify the taste of our nobility. It is well known, that 

 most of them spend a considerable time in their early life, in 

 visiting foreign countries, and especially England, Italy, 

 France, and Germany ; where they learn to admire pic- 

 turesque scenery. The following are residences with gardens 

 and grounds laid out on English principles : — 



