and of Rural Improvement^ during 1835. 611 



It deserves to be mentioned, for the honour of most of the pro- 

 vincial horticultural societies, that they not only direct their 

 premiums for cottagers chiefly to those useful productions which 

 it is desirable should be introduced into cottage gardens, but 

 even give rewards for flowers and other ornamental productions, 

 and also to those cottagers who keep their gardens in best order. 

 These rewards are also, in many places, articles of such use and 

 value (such as silver teaspoons, &c.), as to make the cottager feel 

 that he has not been wasting in unprofitable pursuits the time 

 which some would think ought to be entirely devoted to the 

 maintenance of his family. Where the practice of giving pre- 

 miums to cottagers has been persevered in for a few years, more 

 especially if a superior description of cookery could, at the same 

 time, be taught them, the benefit to that class of society would 

 be immense. 



In taking a general view of the progress of gardening, both 

 as to its advancement as an art, and its practice in the country, 

 the subject admits of two principal divisions; the first of which 

 relates to the art itself, and may be included under landscape- 

 gardening, arboriculture, floriculture, and horticulture ; and the 

 second may be denominated the statistics, or actual state, of 

 gardening, whether in respect to gardens or gardeners. 



GARDENING AS AN ART. 



Landscape- Gardening. — It must be admitted that this depart- 

 ment of the art is that which is least understood. According to 

 some, there was no such thing as landscape-gardening previously 

 to the introduction of the modern style ; according to others, it 

 includes every mode of laying out grounds, ancient or modern. 

 In this last sense we use the term landscape-gardening ; and we 

 think we may claim the merit for ourselves of having, in this 

 Magazine, distinguished and defined the four different modes of 

 creating artificial landscapes, which constitute the geometrical, 

 the picturesque, the gardenesque, and the rural styles. The 

 geometrical style consists in laying out and planting grounds in 

 geometrical figures. The picturesque style is characterised, in 

 regard to means, by the trees and shrubs being planted at irre- 

 gular distances, as they are in natural forests and forest groups ; 

 and, in regard to effect, by its forming such masses of wood, and 

 groups of trees and shrubs, and such a general union of these 

 in compositions, as would look well if painted. The gardenesque 

 style of landscape is characterised, as to means, by the trees, 

 shrubs, and herbaceous plants, whether in masses or groups, 

 being planted at such distances as never to be allowed to touch 

 each other ; and, in regard to effect, by masses and groups, 

 which, while they show the form of each individual tree and 

 shrub at a near view, yet, at a distance, form masses and groups 



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