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ON THE PROGRESS AND PRINCIPLES OF ORNAMENTAL 

 GARDENING. 



(Continued from page 44.) 



On resuming my article on Ornamental Gardening commenced in the last 

 number of the " Floral Cabinet," I have been led to investigate the cause of the 

 very general love of flowers and taste for gardens which pervades all classes of 

 our nation to so much greater an extent than in most neighbouring countries ; 

 and as a view of the subject has occurred to me which I think somewhat novel, 

 I cannot help noting it down before I proceed regularly with my subject. In 

 England all foreigners are particularly struck with the neat little gardens 

 crowded with flowers that decorate alike the cottage of the peasant, of the 

 village mechanic, or the larger villa or country box of the trader or merchant. 

 In short, no residence however humble, where flowers will grow, is destitute of 

 its little front flower-garden ; and this at once proves the nationality of the taste, 

 much more than the great gardens of the rich, which would form a luxurious 

 appendage to every residence of importance, like a French cook or any other 

 luxury, as a matter of course, whether the taste were national or not. In France, 

 Italy, Spain, and Germany, may be seen sumptuous gardens attached to the royal 

 palaces and the residences of the most wealthy nobles ; but in none of these 

 countries do we observe as a national feature flower-gardens attached to the 

 houses of the peasantry or poorer classes — not in Italy, where the genial clime 

 affords such facilities, where the splendid camellia will grow to the height of 

 thirty feet unprotected in the open air, and the American aloe shoots up its 

 towering spike of flowers spontaneously in the neglected thickets, is there a 

 national taste for the cultivation of flowers ; and all Italy did not contain a single 

 nursery ground, I believe, until the French, among the numerous improvements 

 effected, during their occupation of the country, established one in the Farnesi 

 gardens of the Palatine Hill, among the ruins of the palace of the Caesars ; not 

 in Spain, where the feathery palm waves its beautiful foliage luxuriantly in the 

 southern breeze, and beautiful flowers, that in our climate expand their delicate 

 petals only under careful management and watchful care, gush into glorious 

 bloom in early May upon the mountain side, — does there exist a national taste for 

 their culture. Similar remarks may be made of Germany, France, or Switzer- 

 land. It may be argued, that where nature produces so many beautiful flowers 

 spontaneously, there is no need for their culture ; as in the southern countries, 

 where the vegetable necessaries of life are produced in the greatest abundance 

 and luxuriance, agriculture is the most neglected. But this comparison will not 

 hold good, for we find the same thing occurring in the northern portions of 



