Book I. 



GARDENING IN ITALY. 



25 



stone and cluster pine arc confined to the lower regions, as the hills of Tuscany, tlie 

 vales of Arno, Tiber, &c. 



106. Hedges are in general use in Italy, but are very imperfectly formed and managed. 

 In Lombardy the hawthorn is a good deal used ; but in Tuscany, the States of the 

 Church, and those parts of the Neapolitan territory which are hedged, the rhamnus j)ali~ 

 urus is the prevailing plant, mixed, however, with the pyracantha, pomegranate, myrtle, 

 asparagus retrofractus, and with wild roses, brambles, hazels, reeds, &c. seldom without 

 gaps and lioles, open or filled up with dead bushes or reeds. The willow alone oft<.>n 

 forms a hedge in Lombardy, where the shoots are valuable for tying up the vine. 



SuBSECT. 5. Italian Gardening, as empirically/ j)ractised. 



107. Gardens in Italy are common to the rural class of citizens. It is a general remark of 

 travellers, and of acknowledged truth, that the state of cottage gardens indicates the state 

 of the cottagers ; and those of Italy confirm the justness of the observation. Almost 

 tJie only plants grown in them are gourds and Indian corn. In Tuscany and Lombardy 

 some of the cabbage tribe, the kidney-bean, and occasionally the potatoe are to be seen, but 

 rarely any thing else. The gardens of the farmers are somewhat better, especially in the 

 northern districts, where they often contain patches of hemp, potatoes, parsnips, lettuce, 

 and some flowers and fruit-trees. The gardens of small proprietors are still better 

 stocked ; those of wealthy bankers and merchants are generally the best in Italy. ITie 

 gardens of the more wealthy nobles are only superior by their extent, and are dis- 

 tinguished as such, by having more or less of an accompanying park. The gardens of 

 the convents are, in general, well cultivated, and rich in fruits and cuHnary vegetables, 

 with some flowers and evergreens for church decorations. The priests assist in their 

 cultivation, and some of these men are much attached to gardening. 



108. For commercial jmrjyoses gardening is chiefly practised by market-gardeners, who also 

 grow flowers, act as orchardists, and often make wine. There are hardly any nurseries 

 for trees and shrubs in Italy, if we except those for orange-trees at Nervi, and two small 

 ones for general purposes at Milan. Those who form new gardens are chiefly supplied 

 from France, or from their friends, or from private gardens ; most of which last sell 

 whatever they have got to spare. 



109. The operative part of gardening in Italy is performed more by labourers than by regu- 

 lar apprentices and journeymen ; and thus good practical gardeners are more the result 

 of accident than of design. The great defect of both is the want of a taste for order and 

 neatness. The Italians are particularly unskilful in the management of plants in pots, 

 and especially exotics, which require protection by glass. These are put into houses 

 with upright or slightly declining glass fronts, and opaque roofs ; there they remain 

 during a winter of from three to five months ; want of light and air renders their leaves 

 yellow and cadaverous ; and when they are taken out they are placed in the most exposed 

 parts of the garden, often on parapets, benches, or stages. Here the sudden excess of 

 light soon causes them to lose their leaves, which they have hardly time to regain before 

 the period arrives for replacing them in the conservatory or hot-house. We know of few 

 exceptions to this censure, excepting at Monza, and Caserta, where they are kept in 

 winter, in glass-roofed houses, as in England, and placed out in summer under the shade 

 of poplars or high walls. Dr. Oct. Tazetti, professor of rural economy at Florence, 

 who lectures in a garden in which specimens are displayed of the leading sorts of Italian 

 field and garden -culture, acknowledged the justness of this remark. 



110. The artists or professors are of two classes. First, The architects, who adopt the rural 

 branch of their art, {architetti rustici,) and who give plans for parks, chiefly or almost 

 entirely in the geometric style, to be executed under their direction, and that of the head 

 gardener. Secondly, The artist-gardeners, (artisti giardinieri,) who are generally the 

 gardeners, or directors of gardens, of some great establishment, public or private, and 

 who give plans for gardens, chiefly in what is there considered the English manner, and 

 for kitchen-gardens ; and as in England, either direct, by occasional visits, or undertake 

 by contract, their execution and future occasional inspection. 



SuBSECT. 6, Italian Gardening, as a Science, and as to the Authors it has produced. 



111. By the establishment of professorships of botany and botanic gardens, in the sixteenth 

 century, the Italians have materially contributed to the study of the vegetable kingdom, 

 without some knowledge of the physiology of which, the practice of gardening must 

 be entirely empirical. Malpighi is considered the father of vegetable physiology in Italy. 

 It must be confessed, however, that the scientific knowledge of the Italians is chiefly 

 confined to their professors and learned men : the practical gardener is yet too ignorant 

 either to study or understand the subject; too much prejudiced to old opinions to re- 

 ceive new ideas ; and, partly from climate, but chiefly from political and religious slavery, 

 too indifferent to wish to be informed. Some exceptions must be made in favor of such 

 gardeners as have been apprenticed in botanic and eminent gardens, or under intelligent 

 Germans, who are here and there to be found superintending the gardens of the nobles. 



