21 



HISTORY OF GARDENING. 



Part I. 



to study their culture. He returned, and in 1777 published a tract on them, with a plan of a pit for their 

 reception; and in this way they are universally grown in Italy. Such, however, is the exhalation pro- 

 duced in this dry climate from leaves so full of pores, as are those of the pine, and such the want of 

 attention to supplying large pots and plenty of water, that the plants are generally of a pale sickly hue, 

 and the fruit of very small size. 



100. Of the Melon tribe, the variety in Italy is endless, of every degree of flavor, from the richness of the 

 cantaleupe, to the cool, icy, sub-acid taste of the citrouille or water-melon. Too little care is bestowed in 

 selecting good fruits for seeds, and in preventing hybridism from the promiscuous intercourse with sur- 

 rounding sorts of cucumis ; and, hence, seeds sent from Italy'to this country are little to be depended on, 

 and generally produce varieties inferior to those of British growth. There are a few sorts of cucumbers, 

 and though there are a great number of gourds and pompions cultivated, the sorts, or conspicuous 

 varieties of both, are less numerous than in this country. Italian cucumbers are never so succulent as 

 those grown in our humid frames by dung-heat. 



The love-apple, egg-plant, and capsicum, are extensively cultivated near Rome and Naples for the 

 kitchen ; the fruit of the first attaining a larger size, and exhibiting the most grotesque forms. It is 

 singular, that in Sicily this fruit, when ripe, becomes sour, and so unfit for use, that the inhabitants are 

 supplied with it fromNaples. 



101. Want of de7na7id for the fi uits of the northern climates precludes their production. Were it other- 

 wise, there can be no doubt means would soon be resorted to, to produce them in as great perfection as we 

 do their fruits here ; all that is necessary, is to imitate our climate by abstracting or excluding heat, and 

 supplying moisture ; but luxury in Italy has not yet arrived to the degree adequate to produce this effect. 



102. Of culinary vegetables, the Italians began with those left them by the Romans, and they added the 

 potatoe to their number as soon as, or before, we did. They now possess all the sorts known in this country, 

 and use some plants as salads, as the chiccory, ox-e)'e daisy, ruccola, or rocket {Brassica criica, L.), which 

 are little used here. The turnip and carrot tribe, and the cabbage, savoy, lettuce, and radish, thrive best 

 in the northern parts; but the potatoe grows well every where, and the Italian autumn is favorable to the 

 growth of the cauliflowers, and broccolis, which are found of large size at Rome, Florence, and Bologna, 

 in the months of September and October ; and very large at Milan, all the summer and autumn. The le- 

 guminous tribe thrive every where ; but in some places the entire pod of the kidney-bean is so dry and 

 hard, as to prevent its use as a substitute for peas. In short, though the Italians have the advantage over 

 the rest of Lurope in fruits, that good Is greatly counterbalanced by the inferiority of their culinary vege- 

 tables. Much to remedy the defect might be done by judicious irrigation, which in the south of Italy, and 

 even in Lombardy, is so far necessary as to enter into the arrangement of every kitchen-garden. Shading, 

 blanching, and change of seed will effect much ; but the value of good culinary vegetables is not known 

 to the greater part of the wealthy Italians. 



103. Horticulture has made little progress in Italy. It is not in Italy, Simond observes, 

 that horticulture is to be studied ; though nowhere is more produced from the soil by 

 culture, manure, and water ; but forcing or prolonging crops is unknown ; every thing 

 is sown at a certain season, and grows up, ripens, and perishes together. The variety is 

 not great ; they have only three or four sorts of cabbage, not more of kidney-beans, and 

 one of pea ; the red and white beet, salsify, scorzonera, chervile, sorrel, onion, schallot, 

 Jerusalem artichoke, are in many parts unknown : but they have the cocomera, or water- 

 melon, everywhere. In Tuscany and Lombardy, it is raised on dung, and then transplanted 

 in the fields, and its sugary icy pulp forms the delight of the Italians during the whole 

 month of August. Though they have walls round some gardens, they are ignorant of 

 tlie mode of training trees on them. {Agr. Tosc. ) 



SuBSECT. 4. Italian Gardening, in reqtect to the i^lanting of Timber-trees and Hedges. 



104. The self-soivn forests of the Alps and Apenriines are 

 the chief resources of the Italians for timber ; and timber- 

 trees are chiefly propagated for parks, public walks, and 

 lining the great roads. Tlie vine is still, in many places, 

 trained on the poplar and elm {Jig. 7.); but in Tuscany 

 and Lombardy, where the culture is deemed superior, the 

 common maple {A. campestre) and flowering ash (Ormis 

 europeBa) are preferred. [Sigismondi, Agr. Toscan. ; Chateau- 

 vieux, Lettres, &c. 1812.) The most common tree for 

 every other purpose is the narrow-leaved elm, which lines 

 the road from Rome to Naples, for upwards of twenty miles 

 together. Near Milan, the Lombardy poplar is a great deal 

 used; but a late author, Gautieri {Bello Ivjlusso del Bosclii, &c. 1817,) argues in favor 

 of cutting down, rather than planting in the Milanese plains. The finest avenues and 

 public equestrian promenades in Italy are those around Milan and at Monza ; the trees 

 are of various sorts, as the tulip-tree, platanus, lime, acacia, melia zederach, various oaks, 

 chestnuts, beeches, &;c. ; they were planted in Beauharnois' time ; and such is the rapidity' 

 of vegetation in this climate, that already the tulip-trees produce blossoms, and in seven 

 years more the effect will be complete. The sorts are every where mixed, in order that 

 the failure or defective growth of one species may have a chance of being compensated 

 by the growth of that, or of those adjoining ; or that if a malady were to attack one sort 

 of tree, it might not lead to continuous defalcation. Most of those trees were planted 

 by Villaresi, who, before the late political changes, had constantly under his direction not 

 fewer than three thousand men for public and royal improvements. 



105. The timber-trees of the native forests of Italy are chiefly oak, chestnut, and beech ; the 

 undergrowths are of numerous species, including the arbutus, ilex, and myrtle. This 

 class of forests skirts the Alpine mountains, and covers, in many places, the Apennine 

 bills. In higher regions the larch abounds, and in sheltered dells the silver fir. The 



