Book I. GARDENING IN ULTRA-EUROPEAN COUNTRIES. 



97 



ment and real science in the art of culture. To preserve far-fetched varieties, it became 

 necessary to scrutinise into the true principles of the art, which ultimately must depend 

 on the knowledge of the climate of such plant, and the soil in which it flourishes in that 

 climate. Under the influence of such men as Sloane, the Sherrards, and other great en- 

 couragers of science, gardeners acquired botanical knowledge, and were excited to 

 greater exertion in tlieir art." 



452. The increased zeal for planting, and more careful attendance to the pruning of 

 trees, tended to throw light on the subject of vegetable wounds, and their analogy with 

 those of animals, as to the modes of healing, though the French laugh at our ignorance 

 on this subject [Cours (V Agr. art. Plaie,) at the close of the eighteenth century. 



453. But the science of horticulture received its greatest improvement from Knight, 

 the enlightened president of the Horticultural Society. The first of this philosopher's 

 writings will be found in the Philosophical Transactions for 1 795, entitled Observations on 

 the Grafting of Trees. In the same Transactions for 1801 and 1803, are contained his 

 ingenious papers on the fecundation of fruits, and on the sap of trees. Subsequent 

 volumes contain other important papers ; and a great number in which science and art 

 are combined, in a manner tending directly to enlighten and instruct the practical gar- 

 dener, will be found in the Tra7isactions of the Horticultural Society. Through the 

 influence of this author and that society, over which he is so worthy to preside, we see 

 commenced an important asra in the horticulture of this country, an sera rendered pecu- 

 liarly valuable, as transferring the discoveries of science immediately to art, and rendering 

 them available by practitioners. How great may be its influence, on the comforts and 

 luxuries of the table, it is impossible to foresee. The introduction and distribution of 

 better sorts of the common hardy fruits and culinary plants, will tend immediately to the 

 benefit of the humbler classes of society ; and by increasing a little the size, and encou- 

 raging the culture, both ornamental and useful, of cottage-gardens, the attachment of 

 this class to their homes, and consequently their interest in the country, will be increased. 

 Even agriculture will derive advantages, of which, as an example, may be adduced the 

 result of pinching off the blossoms of the potatoe, which, by leaving more nourishment for 

 the root, will increase the produce (according to Knight's estimate) at least one ton per 

 acre. {Hart. Tr.i. 190. Treatise on the Apple and Pear.) 



454. Gardening, as an art of design and taste, may be said to have been conducted 

 mechanically, and copied from precedents, like civil architecture, till the middle of the 

 eighteenth century ; but at this time the writings of Addison, Pope, Shenstone, and 

 G. Mason appeared ; and in these, and especially in the Observations on Modern Gar- 

 dening, by Wheatley, are laid down unalterable principles for the imitation of nature in 

 the arrangement of gardening scenery. The science of this department of the art may 

 therefore be considered as completely ascertained ; but it will probably be long before it 

 be appropriated by gardeners, and applied in the exercise of the art as a trade. A some- 

 "what better education in youth, and more leisure for reading in the periods usually de- 

 voted to constant bodily labor, will eflTect this change ; and its influence on the beauty of 

 the scenery of country-residences, and on the face of the country at large, would be such 

 as cannot be contemplated without a feeling of enthusiastic admiration. If this taste were 

 once duly valued and paid for by those whose wealth enables them to employ first-rate 

 gardeners, it would soon be produced. But the taste of our nobility does not, in gene- 

 ral, take this turn, otherwise many of them would display a very different style of scenery 

 around their mansions. 



455. Britain has produced more original authors on gardening than any other country. 

 It may be sufficient here to inention, in the horticultural department. Justice, Miller, 

 and Abercrombie. In ornamental gardening, Parkinson and Madocks ; in planting, 

 Evelyn and Nicol j and in landscape-gardening, G. Mason and Wheatley. 



Chap. V. 



Of the present State of Gardening in Ultra- European Countries. 



456. The gardens of the old continents are either original, or borrowed from modern 

 Europe. With the exception of China, the gardens of every other country in Asia, 

 Africa, and America, may be comprised under two heads. The aboriginal gardens 

 displaying little design or culture, excepting in the gardens of rulers or chiefs ; and 

 the gardens of European settlers displaying something of the design and culture of their 

 respective countries. Thus the gardening of the interior of Asia, like the manners of 

 the inhabitants, is the same, or nearly the same, now, that it was 3000 years ago ; that of 

 North America is British ; and that of almost all the commercial cities in the world, ex- 



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