REFERENCE BOOKS ON ENGLISH GARDENING LITERATURE. 123 



reference even to-day. A very readable account of his life and 

 struggles through failing health and ill-fortune is given in his 

 posthumous work, entitled "Self Instruction for Young 

 Gardeners." 



Apart from his copious and valuable works on gardening and 

 domestic architecture Loudon did much to encourage others. 

 In Mr. John Buskin's " Instructions in the Use of Kudimentary 

 Series," he says, " Mr. Loudon was the first literary patron who 

 sent works of mine to be actually set in print, in his t Magazine 

 of Natural History,' when I was sixteen." There can be no 

 doubt but that Loudon's works mark a distinct epoch in our 

 garden literature, just as the establishment of the Horticultural 

 Society at this period also emphasised a renaissance. 



1804-96. The Horticultural Society. — The establishment of 

 the Horticultural Society in 1804 under the auspices of Sir 

 Joseph Banks, T. A. Knight, and other eminent scientific and 

 practical horticulturists gave an impetus to gardening and to 

 gardening literature that is even yet not exhausted. The 

 experiments conducted in the Chiswick gardens and the publica- 

 tion of the sumptuous " Transactions " (10 vols.) and the useful 

 " Journals " (of which there are two or three series) naturally 

 spread the light and colour of progress throughout the country, 

 and also fostered to a great extent the energies and abilities of 

 Sweet, Lindley, Dean Herbert, Haworth, Salisbury Sabine, 

 J. C. Loudon, and other authors during the early years of its 

 existence. In 1812 the " Transactions " began, in 1821 the 

 Chiswick garden of 33 acres was founded under the auspicious aid 

 of the then Duke of Devonshire. In the same year the Society 

 sent out their first plant collector, Mr. John Potts, to Bengal and 

 China ; and about the same time Mr. Beeves, a merchant at 

 Macao, gave his valuable aid, and through him the Society 

 introduced the first plant of Wistaria sinensis in 1818, which 

 still exists in the Chiswick garden. 



In 1823 Mr. J. D. Parks also was sent to China, Mr. John 

 Forbes to East Africa, and Mr. D. Douglas to the United States ; 

 and in 1824 his travels were extended to Colombia, and Mr. J. 

 McBae went to the Sandwich Isles. In 1842 Mr. Bobert Fortune 

 went to China and introduced many now popular plants to the 

 Society's garden for the first time. And at a later date Mr. 

 Pearce and Mr. Weir collected for the Society in South America. 



