328 JOURNAL OF THE EOYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
HORTICULTUEAL PROGRESS DURING THE 19th CENTURY. 
By Mr. John Clayton. 
It is impossible at the close of this century to look back and review from 
quite the beginning the growth of our profession— the honourable calling 
of gardening. We have not the time. The work would be enormous.. 
We must content ourselves with glancing back a hundred years, and 
noting the changes wrought in our profession during that time. I some- 
times think we do not always sufficiently value our privileges and the 
ancient establishment of our craft. Gardening is undoubtedly the oldest 
existing profession. W^e are told that in the very earliest days " God 
planted a garden," and placed our first forefather there as gardener. 
Truly it was only a single-handed place to begin with, but what a start 
was then made ! It was the commencement of the most delightful and 
engrossing of the occupations ever given to man. Medicine and law, 
while being of ancient origin, cannot claim quite the same antiquity sm 
gardening. 
I shall not, however, attempt to do more than refer very briefly to 
some of the more important changes which have taken place in connec- 
tion with horticulture during the century just come to a close, which has 
probably been the most progressive century from every point of view since 
the foundation of the world. And I think that in the enormous increase 
in recent years of the devotees of the Goddess " Flora " we have an over- 
whelming evidence of the intellectual advancement of our times. 
For the sake of clearness I have arranged my notes under six headings., 
viz. : — 
1. The century's advance in the Vegetable Garden. 
2. In the Fruit Garden. 
3. In the Flower Garden. 
4. In Glass Houses. 
5. In Garden Literature. 
6. In Gardening Societies. 
Vegetables. 
Take first of all that staple article of food, the Potato. It is well 
known to all that the Potato was introduced into our island by that, 
doughty knight Sir W. Raleigh, or by his companion Thomas Herriott, in 
the reign of good Queen Bess, and from its introduction, in 1585, to the 
commencement of this century not more than thirty distinct varieties are 
recorded, whilst to-day, so far as one can trace, there are certainly 300. Of 
course all are not improvements on their immediate parents, but even the 
poorest of them is a vast improvement on the tuber of 1585, or indeed of 
1785 ; and takmg the Potato as an example, it affords the most striking, 
proof of the advancement of horticulture in the vegetable kingdom. I 
find that in 18BG a Scotch firm quoted 13G varieties, whilst a few years. 
