454 



PRA^CTICE 0> GARDENING. 



Part III. 



of plants and vegetation, and how far art (in his way) may be made successfully useful, 

 or at least probably so. The mode of growth, the pruning, the soil, the heat, and the 

 moisture that suits particular plants, are not to be understood without a native taste, and 

 close application of the mind. Whoever will give himself the pains to trace a good 

 gardener through the several stages of his employ, in all the seasons of the year, will find 

 it to be one continued circle of reflection, labor, and toil. Gardening depends more upon 

 the labor of the brain than of the body : there is no such thing as always proceeding with' 

 certainty and ^insuring success. Plants will die, and that sometimes suddenly, under the 

 very best management. There are few things to be done in a garden which do not re- 

 quire a dexterity in operation, and a nicety in hitting the proper season for doing it. 

 A gardener should be a sort of prophet in foreseeing what will happen under certain cir- 

 cumstances, and wisely cautious to provide, by the most probable means, against what 

 may happen. A man cannot be a good gardener, except he be thoughtful, steady, and 

 industrious ; possessing a superior degree of sobriety and moral excellence, as well as 

 genius and knowledge adapted to his business. He should be modest in his manners and 

 opinions. ' It too often happens, with those who have much practical skill, that they slight 

 what is \vi-itten upon subjects of their profession ; which is a fastidious temper that the 

 man of real merit will hai-dly entertain. 



2373. The characte)' of a gardener is here set high ; but it is the goal of respectability 

 at which he ought to aim who presumes to call himself a professed one. A gardener 

 has reason, indeed, to love liis employment, as he meets with health and tranquillity in the 

 exercise of it ; but considering what he is, and what he does, in his proper capacity, he 

 may justly claim a superior degree of estimation and reward. A true gentleman is of 

 a liberal spirit, and I would plead for Ms gardener as a proper person to be generous 

 towards, if his manners be good. {Tntrod. to Gard. p. 447.) 



PART III. 



GARDENING AS PRACTISED IN BRITAIN. 



2374. The art of gardening in the earlier ages of society would be practised without those 

 local subdivisions, or technical distinctions, which its progressive improvement has since 

 rendered necessary ; and being then carried on in one enclosure, called a Garden, the 

 term Gardening was then sufficiently explicit for every purpose. But at present the 

 local subdivisions and technical distinctions of this art are various ; we have the kitchen, 

 fruit, flower, forcing, and exotic gardens, the pleasure-ground, shrubbery, park, and 

 timber-plantation, all vsdthin the province of Gardening ; and the terms culinary gardening, 

 fruit-gardening, flower-gardening, planting, &c. as technical distinctions for them. Tlie 

 vague manner in which so many terms have been used by gardeners and authors, has led 

 to some confusion of ideas on the subject, which it is much to be wished could be avoided 

 in future. Taking the word gardening as a generic term, we have arranged its ramifi- 

 cations or divisions, in what we conceive to be permanent or specific distinctions. The 

 principle of classification which we have adopted, is that of the use or object in view ; and 

 applying it, we think all the vaj-ieties of gardening may be included under the four fol- 

 lowing species : — 



2375. Horticulture, the object of which is to cultivate products used in domestic economy. 

 It includes culinary and fi uit gardening, or orcharding ; and forcing or ex(3tic gardening, 

 as far as respects useful products. 



2376. Floriculture, or ornamental gardening, the object of which is to cultivate plants 

 ornamental in domestic economy. It includes flower, botanic, and shrubbery gardening ; 

 and forcing and exotic gardening, as far as respects plants of ornament. 



2377. Arboriculture, or planting, the object of which is to cultivate trees and shrubs, useful 

 in general economy. It is practised in forests, woods, groves, copses, stripes, and rows. 



2378. Landscape-gardening, the object of which is to produce landscapes; or, so to 

 arrange and harmonise the external scenes of a country-residence, as to render them orna- 

 mental, both as domestic scenery, and as apart of the general scenery of the country. This 

 branch is by some called picturesque, rural, ornamental, or tenitorial improvement ; rural 

 ornament, ornamental gardening, pictorial improvement, new ground work, ornamental 

 planting, &c. It includes the ancient, formal, geometric, or French gardening, and the 

 modem, natural, picturesque, or English gardening. 



