GARDENING. 
59 
geously displayed where the people are free; the 
final tendency of such a state of society being to 
conglomerate property in irregular masses, as nature 
has distributed her properties; and this irregularity 
is the most favorable for gardening as a necessary, 
convenient and elegant art. 
The religion of a people is also calculated to have 
some effect upon their gardening; for those religions 
whose offices are accompanied by splendor and show, 
and which have various fetes and spectacles, will 
be favorable to the culture of flowers and plants of 
ornament; and those which forbid at certain seasons 
the use of animal food, will in some degree encour¬ 
age the production of fruits and vegetables. In or¬ 
der more fully to observe the influence which the 
different states of society and climate have upon 
this science, it would be well to take a retrospective 
view of its progress from the earliest periods down 
to the present time. 
The art of cultivating the soil, according to Sir 
Isaac Newton, was invented in Egypt. According to 
Herodotus, the sacred groves or gardens were often 
of extraordinary beauty, thus designedly correspond¬ 
ing with that primeval garden where the Almighty 
Ruler first placed man. Every sacred grove was a 
copy of Elysium, and the prototype of Elysium itself 
was the paradise of Eden. From Egypt, this art 
spread itself through Persia, Greece, and other an¬ 
cient countries, that eventually came under the do¬ 
minion of the Roman emperors. The first mention 
that is made of a garden in the Roman history, is 
that of Tarquinius Superbus, B. C. 534. Livy men¬ 
tions this garden, but it can only be gathered from 
what he writes, that it was connected with the royal 
palace in the city of Rome, that it abounded in 
flowers and was supplied with streams of water. 
The villa of Sallust was situated on Quirinal Hill, 
and in Stewart’s life of Sallust we are informed that 
these gardens were so beautiful, that when Rome 
fell beneath the sway of her Emperors, the imperial 
residence was fixed in them. Some idea of Roman 
ardens about the beginning of the present era, may 
e obtained from the paintings rescued from the 
ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum. They are 
represented in these paintings merely as square 
plots of ground, surrounded with trellis-work and 
ornamented with fountains and urns. 
Among the fruits that were introduced into Italy 
by the Romans may be found the fig and almond 
from Syria, the citron from Media, the peach 
from Persia, the pomegranate from Africa, the 
apricot from Epirus, apples, pears, and plums from 
Armenia, and cherries from Pontus. 
There is no Roman author exclusively upon 
this subject, but we find it treated of by Virgil, in 
his Georgies, by Pliny in his Natural History, and 
by Columella in his Rural Economy. 
The decline of the Roman Empire commenced 
with the reign of the Emperors. Violence and 
rapine stalked abroad at noon-day—invasion from 
barbarians followed, and the ferocity engendered by 
the troubles of the times, seemed almost entirely to 
efface from the mind of man the noble simplicity of 
nature. Barbarism rode rough-shod over man and 
the arts ; warfare became the only occupation, and 
a taste for .his ennobling science was entirely 
rooted out. 
From the commencement of the government of 
the Popes in the 8th, to the 13th century, horticul¬ 
ture was practised only by the monks and houses 
of religious persons in Europe. Harte informs us 
that the monks of St. Basil and St. Benedict ren¬ 
dered fertile many tracts in Italy, Spain and 
Franee, which had lain neglected ever since the in¬ 
vasion of the Goths and Saracens. 
In A. D. 1440, the art of printing was invented ; 
this, with other causes, conduced towards the es¬ 
tablishment of commerce in Italy and Holland, and 
the arts of peace to prevail. The splendor and 
magnificence of the popes and princes, the remains 
of ancient grandeur, and the blessings of peace and 
commerce tended to the revival of the arts in Italy 
rather than any other country. The Medici family, 
in the commencement of the 16th century, did much 
towards the revival of the art of gardening. The 
earliest private botanic garden was formed at Pa¬ 
dua, by Gasper de Gabrieli, a wealthy Tuscan 
noble. It was finished in 1525, and opened for the 
inspection and gratification of the curious. At an 
early period of the Roman Empire, the valley of 
the Rhone was a favorite retreat of the nobility, 
and nowhere out of Italy are to be found such 
splendid remains of villas as in the Provincia Nar- 
bonensis, in France. Gardening, with the other 
arts, proceeded from east to west. The Crusades, 
in the 12th century, excited a taste for building and 
gardening in the north of Europe, although some 
authors state that even before this period the Dutch 
cultivated many useful and ornamental plants. The 
Christian invaders could not avoid noticing the 
gardens of the Infidels in Egypt and Syria, and 
being struck with their beauty, imitated their plans, 
and imported their productions into Europe. The 
16th century, however, arrived before the culture 
of flowers was attempted. The introduction of the 
Christian religion, though at present favorable, was 
at first adverse to the use of flowers; the rites of 
religion, then carried on in gloomy vaults, were 
not, as now, accompanied by bands of music, 
statues, pictures, and altars decorated with flowers. 
Botany now began to be considered a science, inde¬ 
pendent of medicine. Gardens were constructed, 
destined for curious and beautiful plants; and the 
discovery of America and the passage to the Indies 
augmented their number. Travellers collected 
seeds, which they sent home to their respective 
countries; great care was bestowed on such as ap¬ 
peared the most ornamental; till, advancing by de¬ 
grees, they at length became objects of luxury, 
and trade, and caprice; fashion and variety gave 
incredible prices for some of these productions ; for 
in what will not extravagance intermingle ? 
The gardening of our own country is, to some 
extent, necessarily that of Europe; but within a 
few years vast improvements have been made in 
horticulture here. Societies for the diffusion of 
information upon this subject, have sprung up in 
all parts of the United States, and with their rise 
and progress a new impulse Las been given to this 
art. The taste for Horticulture has rapidly dis¬ 
seminated itself through the public mind—more so, 
perhaps, than a corresponding knowledge of skill 
necessary for the cultivation and management of 
its objects ; consequently works on this subject are 
