Book I. THE STUDY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



119 



for particular instructions, adapted to peculiar cases, or singular pui-poses. Industry 

 may be baffled, and hope defeated, by a thousand contingencies from causes incident 

 to every process of art or operation of nature. By these the mere routine-practitioner 

 is deranged, or thrown off his guard ; whilst the man of science refers events to their 

 true causes, suggests the adaptation of measures to meet every case ; and knowing the 

 laws of nature to be immutable, he operates on her materials with confidence in the 

 result. Science alone, however, without practical experience, will not ensure success, 

 and may at first end in disappointment. But " where theoretical knowledge and practi- 

 cal skill," as D. Stew^art observes, " are happily combined in the same person, the intel- 

 lectual power of man appears in its full perfection, and fits him equally to conduct with 

 a masterly hand the details of ordinary business, and to contend successfully with th§ 

 untried difficulties of new and hazardous situations." (Elements of the Philosophy of the 

 Human Mind, p. 232. 2d. edit.) 



544. The science of every art must necessarily depend on the end or object for luhich that 

 art is j7ractised ; on the nature of the materials employed to procure or attain those ends ; 

 and on the nature of the agents made use of by human skill to operate on those mate- 

 rials. The object of the art of gardening is twofold : that of cultivating vegetables for 

 use or ornament in domestic or general economy ; and that of forming arrangements 



.-of external scenery, beautiful as such, and suitable for personal recreation. The first 

 object, therefore, to be ascertained on this subject, should be the wants, desires, and taste 

 of that society for which the gardening is intended ; the 2d, the study of the vegetable 

 kingdom ; the 3d, the study of the natural agents of garden-culture ; the 4th, that of 

 the artificial agents of garden-culture ; and the 5th, that of the operations of garden-cul- 

 ture. All the operations of territorial cultivation are either mechanical or chemical ; 

 and must therefore depend on the laws which govern the common materials of our globe. 

 ■jHaose laws, or the manner and circumstances in which these materials operate on each 

 other, constitute the limit of human science j for any attempt to go farther and discover 

 first causes, inevitably ends in disappointment. 



The first branch of the science of gardening, or the study of society and taste, may be considered as 

 ascertained by every individual, from liis own mDservation and experience ; that is, from the circumstance 

 of his being himself a specimen of the society for the time being. This branch, therefore, does not require 

 ■farther consideration in a work like the present. 



The second and third branches, in which gardening is considered as a science of chemical agencies, are 

 important subjects of study, and admit of much improvement ; though unquestionably considerable pro- 

 gress has been made within the last fifty j-ears, since the study of vegetable physiology and chemistry have 

 become more general; and since these arts have been enriched by the discoveries of Mirbel, Keyser, 

 Knight, Lavoisier, Chaptal, and Davy ; and applied to agriculture and horticulture by Davy and Knight, 

 in England, and Du Hamel, Thouin, and others, in France. 



The fourth and fifth branches, in which gardening is considered as a science of mechanical operations, may 

 be said to have partaken of the general progress of the age, and to have adopted various improvements 

 made in architecture and engineering, in so far as they were found applicable to either its useful or agree- 

 able destinations. Here, however, there is stiU great room for advancement, especially in the construction 

 of hot-houses, and the formation of waUed gardens. 



The last branch, in which gardening is considered as a science of design and taste, is founded on principles 

 common to other arts, as to architecture and landscape-painting, whose ends are similar ; and here, though 

 its science has long been as much neglected as in the other branches, yet now it may be considered to be 

 fully ascertained and fixed by Alison, Wheatley, and Price ; and applied by Wheatley and Price, in Eng- 

 land, and Girardin and De Lisle, in France. 



545. To know the science of any one art pefectly, would require a knowledge of all the 

 others which bear relation to it, or serve in any way to explain the nature and influence of 

 its operations and arrangements. But this is more than can be expected from men in 

 general (Aubert, in his Cours de Phytologie, Paris, 1816, gives a table of twenty sciences 

 as related to Botany alone) ; what cannot be hoped for from practical men ; and what 

 would require in a systematic view of gardening like the present, treatises on most of the 

 other arts. It is preferable, in our opinion, to draw from other branches of know- 

 ledge, the explanations which they afford of particular operations or phenomena, that 

 come into notice in discussing what we have laid down as leading principles of garden- 

 ing. Thus, in place of treating of chemistry, we have merely drawn from that science 

 what belongs to the study of vegetables, soils, and manures, &c. ; instead of a treatise 

 on the mechanical powers, we have merely given an explanation of the principles on 

 which each class of implements and machines operates ; and in place of treating of archi- 

 tecture and painting, we have merely discussed the subject of design and composition in 

 these arts ; the first as applicable to buildings and artificial dispositions of ground, and 

 the second as directing the formation of real sceneiy. 



BOOK I. 



THE STUDY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



546. Organised bodies are divided itito two orders ; those eridowed with sentiment, ot 

 a consciousnesss of their existence, and those deprived of that sensibility. The study of 



I 4 



