THE 



GARDENER'S MAGAZINE- 



SEPTEMBER, 1836. 

 ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. Botanical and Horticultural Tour in Lombardy. By Signor 

 Giuseppe Manetti. 



I NOW sit down to fulfil my promise to you respecting my 

 botanical and horticultural tour, which will contain whatever I 

 think will be interesting to you in the gardens of Lombardy, 

 not only as respects botany and horticulture, but every thing 

 else that appears to me worthy of notice. I do not intend to 

 speak of all the gardens in Lombardy indiscriminately, because, 

 by undertaking such a task, I should plunge into a sea from 

 which I could not easily extricate myself; but I shall treat of 

 those gardens only which are the most celebrated, and which 

 present the greatest interest with regard to the object in view. 

 I ought, perhaps, to begin with the garden in which I am em- 

 ployed ; but, as I have often spoken about it to you already, I 

 think I shall prefer commencing with that of Desio. 



Desio is a large village, about four leagues north of Milan, 

 and about one and a half north-west from Monza. The soil is 

 of that kind which is here usually called ladino, or arable, and 

 is either black, or calcareous, and very fertile. There are several 

 villas in Desio ; but the most beautiful is that called La Casino, 

 which is now the property of Signor Traversi. 



At the epoch of the introduction of the taste for landscape 

 and pleasure gardens in what is commonly called the English 

 style, the late Marquis Ferdinand© Casani, in 1777, laid out 

 this villa, and formed a garden to it of 200 superficial Milanese 

 perches. The universal opinion is, that Casani spent all liis 

 fortune on this garden, because his heirs, after his death, put it 

 up for sale; and, indeed, it is not wonderful that so much 

 money was sp'^nt as, the ground here being perfectly flat, every 

 elevation of the soil must have been made by art. Besides the 

 ground being cleverly laid out, the trees are planted and grouped 



Vol. XII. — No. 78. l l 



