i30OK I. 



TRADESMEN-GARDENERS. 



1041 



witli other botanic curators ; exchanges plants, seeds, and dried specimeus, so as to keep 

 up or increase his own collection of living plants, and herbarium siccii?n. Abroad, for 

 want of sufficiently intelligent practical gardeners, they have what are called directors and 

 inspectors of botanic or other government gardens ; but no such office is requisite in tlzis 

 country, 



7387. Royal gardener, court-gardener, or government-gardener ; Jardinier de la Csur, Fr. ; 

 Hoffgurtner, Ger. ; and Giardinicre della Corte, Ital. This is the highest step, the sum- 

 mum bomim of garden-servitude. In foreign countries, the court-gai dener wears an ap- 

 propriate livery, as did formerly the head gardeners of the principal nobility, as well as 

 die court-gardeners of this country. At present this remnant of feudal slavery is laid aside 

 in every grade of Britisli gai-den-servitude. 



Sect. II, Tradesmen- Gardener^s. 

 7588, Of tradesmen-gardeners, the first grade is the jobbing gardener, vvho makes and 

 mends gardens, and keeps them in repair by the month or year. Generally he uses his own 

 tools, in which he is distinguished from the serving gardener; and sometimes he supplies 

 plants from a small sale-garden of his own. 



7389. Contracting gardeners, or new-ground workmen, are jobbers on a larg'er scale. 

 Th^y undertake extensive works, as forming plantations, pieces of water, roads, kitchen- 

 gardens, and even hot-houses, and other garden structures and buildings. Formerly, and 

 especially in Brown's time, this branch of trade was combined with that of the artist-gar- 

 dener, but now since the principle of the division of labor has been so much refined on, 

 they are generally separated. 



7390. Seed-growers are as frequently ftuTners as gardeners ; their gardens or fields are 

 situated in warm districts, and they contract with seed-merchants to supply certain seeds 

 at certain rates, or to raise or grow seeds furnished to them by the seedsmen on stipulated 

 terms. The great test of excellence here is never to grow at the same time such seeds as 

 may hybridise the progeny by impregnation. 



7391. Seed-merchants, or seeds/nen, deal in gai-den-seeds and. other garden-productions; 

 in general tliey combine the business of nurserymen or florists, but sometimes confine 

 themselves entirely to dealing in seeds wholesale, or to a sort of agency between the seed- 

 growers and the nursery-seedsmen. 



7392. Herb-gardeners grow herbs, either the entire herb, as mint, or particular parts, 

 as the bulb of liliura, and the flower of the rose for medical purposes, or for distillation 

 or perfumery. 



7393. Physic-gardeners, herbalists, or si7nplicists, not only grow herbs for the pur- 

 poses of medicine, or perfumeiy, but collect wild ])lants for these purposes. For- 

 merly, wh<?n it was the fashion among medical men to use indigenous plants as drugs, 

 this was a more common and important branch of trade. They have commonly shops 

 appended, to tlieir gardens, or in towns, in which the herbs are preserved, and sold in a 

 dried state, 



7394. Collectors for gardens. The first varietj' of this species is the gipsy-gardeners, 

 who collect haws, acorns, and otlier berries and nuts, and sell them to the seedsmen ; the 

 next are those who collect pine and fir cones, alder-catkins, and other tree-seeds, which 

 require some time, and a process to separate the seeds from their covers, and clean them 

 before they can be sold ; and the highest variety are those gardeners who establish them- 

 selves in foreign countries, and there collect seeds and roots, and prepare dried specimens 

 of rare plants for sale. 



7395. Orchardists of the simplest kind are such as occupy grass-orchards, where the 

 produce is chiefly apples, pears, and plums, for cider or kitchen-use ; tlie next variety 

 occupy cultivated orchard-grounds where fruit-shrubs, as the goosebeiTy, currant, straw- 

 berry, &c. are grown between the fruit-trees ; and the highest variety occupy orchards 

 with walls and hot-houses, and produce the finer stove-fruits and forced articles. 



7396. Market-gardeners grow culinary vegetables and also fruits ; the simplest kind 

 are those who grow only tlie m.ore common hardy articles for the kitchen, as cabbage, 

 pease, turnips, &-c. ; a higher variety grow plants for propagation, as cauliflowers, ce- 

 lery, and artichoke-plants, and pot-herbs, as mint, thyme, &c. ; and the highest A^ariety 

 possess hot-beds and hot-houses, and produce mushrooms, melons, pines, and other 

 forced articles and exotic fioiits. They have often shops at their gai-dens, or in towns, 

 for the disposal of their produce ; and these, when fruit is chiefly dealt in, are called 

 fruit-shops ; v. here culinary- vegetables are joined, green-grocery shops. Most com- 

 monly, however, the culinary vegetables are carried to market, and there disposed of to 

 such as retail them in shops or on stalls. Occasionally they are deposited for sale in the 

 hands of agents or brokers, and sometimes shops are suppHed regularly on certain con- 

 ditions. 



7397. Florists are either market-florists who gi'ow and force flowers for the market, and 

 of this subspecies are two varieties, those who grow onlv hardv flowers to be cut as nose- 



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