628 View of the Progress of Gardening, 



will probably, at no distant period, receive a great impulse, in 

 consequence of the Select Committee on Arts and Manufactures 

 formed during the last session of parliament. The published 

 Minutes of Evidence taken before this committee appear to us to 

 be of extreme importance : they will probably lead to the establish- 

 ment of schools of design in all our manufacturing towns, and, in 

 consequence, to a great improvement in the forms of domestic 

 furniture of every description ; and an equal improvement in the 

 painted, printed, or engraved designs on every class of manufac- 

 tured objects. (See an analysis of this Report, in Arch. Mag., 

 vol. iii.) 



GARDENING AND RURAL IMPROVEMENT IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



In Finance, notwithstanding the political cloud which appears 

 to hang over the country, the taste for gardening seems to be on 

 the increase. The Horticultural Society of Paris, judging from 

 their exhibition in the Orangerie of the Tuilleries in June last 

 (at which the king was present, and at which he acknowledged 

 himself the patron of the Society), and also from the A?inales 

 d' Horticulture, appears to be in a thriving state. The number 

 and extent of the nurseries round Paris, and in different parts of 

 France, have increased within these few years ; and no establish- 

 ment of this kind more so than that of M. Soulange-Bodin, of 

 which some notice will be found in a succeeding page. The in- 

 tercourse between the seedsmen of France and Britain has much 

 increased, especially in what i*elates to agricultural seeds ; and, 

 also, the intercourse of the Parisian seedsmen (especially that of 

 M. Vilmorin and Co., who are the first seedsmen on the Con- 

 tinent, and, indeed, in Europe,) with America. 



Holland has long been celebrated for its seed merchants and 

 its commerce in bulbous roots ; and in both products the country 

 retains its celebrity. Its exports of nursery articles, and espe- 

 cially of fruit trees, compared with what they used to be fifty 

 or sixty years ago, have diminished : but its export of vegetables 

 and fruits has increased ; and very much so its export of bulbs. 



Belgium, which used to be only second to Holland in botany 

 and horticulture, may now be considered as ranking higher in 

 the scale than the former country. The present King of- the 

 Belgians being a botanist, and much attached to planting and 

 gardening, has introduced various improvements in the gardens 

 and grounds of his palace of Lacken near Brussels. These im- 

 provements have been designed by Mr. M'Intosh, His Majesty's 

 gardener at Claremont, and consist of extensive ranges of hot- 

 houses and pits, and collections both of house and hardy plants. 

 The botanical and horticultural garden at Brussels is said to be 

 rather on the decline, for want of funds ; but the botanic garden 

 at Ghent is undergoing various important improvements, under 



