254 Floiver-Gardens and So?ig Birds. 



astronomer is still making discoveries in the unlimited field of 

 space, the geologist is getting more familiar with the wonders of 

 his department, the chemist is still finding out new combinations 

 which will yet benefit the world; but with all this activity, there 

 are still masses of human minds that remain in darkness, which, 

 if enlightened, might give hopes of future Fergusons and Frank- 

 lins, and Arkwrights and Watts. By combining the rays of know- 

 ledge into a focus, we may expect in due time the bursting 

 forth of light and heat, that will extend their beneficial influence 

 to the remotest tribes of our globe. Among chemical bodies, 

 there are two great classes called acids and alkalies ; the one may 

 be intensely sour and corrosive, the other hot, bitter, and caustic, 

 and yet they may be made to neutralise each other, so that even 

 paper stained with litmus and turmeric will not be affected by 

 them: in like manner, the humanising effect of gardening upon 

 the minds of a nation may have a tendency to curb the over- 

 growth of those passions that often disturb the peace of society ; 

 those who engage in that delightful pursuit may be led to look 

 upon the green earth and the blue and the boundless heavens 

 in a new and unexpected aspect, and admire the wisdom and 

 goodness of our Creator 



" In rocks and trees, in every blade and flower." 



West Plean, April 5. 1842. 



Art. IV. Flower-Gardens and Song Birds. By Charles 

 Waterton, Esq. 



" Inutilesque falce ramos amputans, 



Feliciores inserit." Horace. 



With pruning-knife, the useless branch he cuts, 

 And in its place a graft prolific puts. 



How I prize the gardener ! He is Nature's primest jeweller; 

 and he has the power of placing within our reach all that is 

 nutritive, and luscious, and lovely, in the enchanting domains 

 of Flora and Pomona. Without his assistance, Nature would 

 soon run out into uncurbed luxuriance; the flowery lawn would 

 disappear, and ere long the hemlock and the bramble, with a 

 train of noxious attendants, would lord it all around. To the 

 industry, then, of the gardener we are indebted for scenes 

 of rural beauty quite unparalleled ; and to his science we owe 

 the possession of every wholesome fruit and root. In times 

 too, now long gone by, ere the ruthless Reformation smote this 

 land, the gardener's nomenclature was truly Christian; for 

 scarcely a flower, or shrub, or root was known, the name of 

 which did not tend to put us in mind of future happiness in the 

 realms of eternal bliss. Hence, the gardener is my friend ; 

 and wherever I have an opportunity of surveying lands which 



