OF GARDENING. 



xxi' 



Czartoryska, who also wrote a small treatise on the man- 

 ner of planting English gardens, and which was published 

 at the commencement of the present century. She resided 

 some time in this country, and cultivated a taste for garden- 

 ing, which enabled her, on her return, to make considerable 

 improvements in her own country. Horticulture is, however, 

 still at a very low ebb in Poland, being chiefly confined to 

 the nobility, who may have taken up a temporary residence 

 in this country, and imbibed a taste for gardening, or 

 who, by serving in the army in France and Germany, may 

 have obtained a knowledge of the systems adopted in those 

 countries. 



The study of plants is of great antiquity in Spain ; having 

 been introduced by the Arabs, who, at an early period, were 

 acquainted with, and initiated in the study of botany and 

 physic. No country has enjoyed more favorable opportunities 

 of excelling in the cultivation of exotic plants than Spain. The 

 climate is salubrious and temperate, and the Spaniards might 

 have monopolized for a time all the vegetable treasures of 

 Peru, Mexico, and Chili. Culinary gardening requires little 

 skill in Spain, the soil and climate being particularly adapted 

 ior it. Onions and water-melons are grown in such plenty 

 as to form a considerable branch of the export trade of that 

 country. Onions and garlic are their favorite vegetables. No 

 European country is so well stocked with a variety of fruits ; 

 and, independently of all the fruits of Italy, native or accli- 

 mated, they possess the date, the tamarind, and other West- 

 Indian fruits ; and in some of the southern provinces, the 

 pine-apple flourishes in the open air. Gardening in Portugal 

 is very little attended to, and is nearly in the same degraded 

 state as it is in Spain. 



Having thus entered cursorily into a concise review of the 

 horticulture of Europe, we will now proceed to inquire into 

 the state of gardening in Britain, with reference to its intro- 

 duction and progress. 



Before the Roman invasion, the Britons were so deeply 

 immersed in ignorance, that they cannot even be supposed to 

 have cultivated any vegetable productions, being content to 

 live on acorns, the bark of trees, and whatever other roots 



