242 PARKS AND PLEASURE-GROUNDS. 



sufficiently interested in them to secure their con- 

 tinuance. We are a great way behind Europe in this 

 department, and it is to be hoped that our further 

 neglect will not long remain a reproach to us. — Ed. 



Sect. IV. — Gardens belonging to Horticultural 

 and Zoological Societies. 



(1.) The Garden oe Horticultural Societies. — This 

 species of garden is of more recent origin than those 

 devoted to strictly botanical purposes. Soon after the 

 rise of the horticultural societies, in the first decade of 

 the present century, it was felt to be desirable that 

 these institutions should possess pieces of garden- 

 ground, on which to perform such extended experiments 

 as might be beyond the reach of private cultivators. 

 Methods of culture recommended by professional' men, 

 or speculative amateurs, were to be repeated, and their 

 general utility to be ascertained. Original observa- 

 tions were to be made. In all these and various other 

 spheres of progress, the gardens of which we now pro- 

 pose to speak, as is universally admitted, have conferred 

 most important benefits on the practice of horticulture. 



In botanic gardens many valuable and interesting 

 plants can appear only as single specimens of the 

 vegetable system, for in these the principle to be fol- 

 lowed is the collection of species, and as the known 

 species are now very numerous, many varieties and 

 sub-varieties of great value in ornamental and eco- 

 nomical points of view are necessarily excluded. In 

 the horticultural garden, (to adopt the popular, but 



