86 
PRUNING EXOTIC PLANTS. 
One good consequence of this feeling is the disposition to investigate for our- 
selves the means which have been instrumental in promoting improvements, and 
the positive nature of the systems of procedure which are deemed advancements on 
former ones. No examination can be more useful than that which induces us to 
compare the practice of bygone years with that at present in vogue, to sift both of 
all personal bias, and establish clearly the essential points of difference. We are 
thus not only led to observe the upward course towards perfection which art is 
constantly taking, and which must always be gratifying to a reflective mind, but 
to trace step by step the strides of science, and learn wherein the assumed amelio- 
rations consist, and what are their chief features ; thereby acquiring the power of 
perpetuating them satisfactorily. For it is notorious that the most excellent plans 
of culture, if confided to the execution of persons ignorant of the principles on 
which they are founded, and the circumstances which gave them birth, soon 
degenerate to the very lowest scale from which they had risen. 
In the olden times, when the growth of ornamental plants was confined strictly 
to their preservation, and the word cultivation— or at least the complicated and 
refined process it has latterly been made to signify — was unknown or little regarded, 
it was the custom to have plants in houses so arranged as to form, aggregately, a 
continuous bank or mass, sloping from the back of the house to the front, in which 
each object assisted in composing the general group, but its individuality was 
entirely lost. To discover the connexion of its upper branches, with the stem and 
the pot in which it grew, was often a task of some difficulty, so closely were the 
specimens packed together. Indeed, it might be said of every plant that it 
consisted of a long, bare stem or stems, and similarly naked branches, with a few 
green shoots, leaves, and flowers on their summit. 
Nor is this description altogether inapplicable to many of the plant-houses of 
the present day, where ancient practices are yet adhered to. And we bring it thus 
prominently before our readers in order to show that it is a relic of a former age, 
which, when brought to the standards of taste and science, as now fixed, will not 
abide the test. 
The great merit of modern methods of cultivation is that they are based on 
metaphysical principles. We are aware that this phrase will be objected to, and 
that gardeners are, for the most part, ignorant of the science to which it refers. 
But we believe, nevertheless, that the most popular and successful modes of culti- 
vation now adopted have their origin in the known dispositions and character of 
the human mind. Thus, all have an innate and almost instinctive perception of 
beauty, and in proportion as cultivators become more familiar with this fact, and 
with the leading features of the beautiful in art or nature, they adapt their treat- 
ment to the production of objects which shall gratify such a taste. And we have 
no scruple in declaring that the improved plans of managing plants which so 
markedly characterise the age in which we live are due, in a great measure, to the 
higher mental culture and refinement — as regards subjects of taste — of the agents 
engaged in this work. 
