and of Rural Impro'vement generalli/, during 1838. BQ5 



and a sixth for miscellaneous ones, on account of the expense ; 

 but in that case, rather than sacrifice the collections by growing 

 so many kinds together, it is recommended to confine the atten- 

 tion to the culture of plants of the same habits; or, if the green- 

 house should be long, to divide it by glass partitions. On the 

 whole, we consider these articles as among the best which have 

 appeared in Paxton's Magazine. 



It is gratifying to observe, that, in the writings of young gar- 

 deners, and especially in the discussions carried on at such meet- 

 ings as the West London Gardener's Association, attempts are 

 making to found horticultural practices on nature and reason ; 

 and not, as hitherto, on mere empirical experience. It is easy 

 to foresee, that, in a few years, this tendency to progress in sci- 

 entific knowledge will render the greater number of existing 

 books on the practice of gardening (our own JE.ncyclo'pcedia not 

 excepted) in a great degree defective. In treating of the culture 

 of any particular plant, in future, the first step will be to trace its 

 geographical range, and its physical history in a state of nature; 

 the next, to show how these conditions may be imitated by art ; 

 and the third, how particular products of the plant may be in- 

 creased, or rilay be modified, so as to suit the purposes for which it 

 is grown. All culture must necessarily be either imitative, in which 

 the object is to produce the plants in gardens as nearly as pos- 

 sible in the state in which they are supposed to be found in wild 

 nature; or ameliorative, in which the object is to produce the 

 plants, or a particular part or parts of them, in a state adapted 

 to some want or wish of man in a state of civilisation. We 

 do not say that this mode of treating of the culture of plants 

 will occasion a revolution either in gardening or in gardening 

 books ; on the contrar}'^, the greater part of modern practice 

 will be found to remain as it is ; but, every part of it will be 

 founded on reason and nature, and many new points, which, 

 taking this view of the subject, it will be found necessary 

 to attend to, will occur, which were never thought of before. 

 The father of this mode of treating horticultural subjects, as 

 far as we have been able to ascertain, was the late Professor 

 Andre Thouin of the Jardin des Plantes, as appears by the Cows 

 de Naturalisation, &c., published by his nephew Oscar Le Clerc. 

 In England, about the commencement of the present century, 

 the late Thomas Andrew Knight pursued the same system in 

 his papers in the Philosophical Transactions, and subsequently in 

 the Transactions of the Horticultural Society ; though Mr. Knight, 

 for the most part, reasoned from the structure and physiology of 

 plants generally, and from experiment, rather than from the 

 habitats of the particular species which he treated of. After 

 Mr. Knight followed Dr. Lindley, in the introduction to his 

 father's book, the Guide to the Orchard and Kitchen-Garden, 



oo 3 



