June 16, 1892. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
447 
T he following paper, prepared by Mr, F. W. Burbidge, Curator, 
Botanic Gardens, Trinity College, Dublin, was read, in his 
absence, at the naeeting of the Horticultural Club, Hotel Windsor, 
Tuesday, June 7th, and we have pleasure in giving it the promi¬ 
nence in our columns to which it is entitled. 
“ All knowledge is of use if applied aright; no knowledge is of use if applied awry.” 
—Prop. M. Foster. 
The cultivation of vegetables, fruits, and flowers for domestic 
use, or for profit in other ways, is now one of our most important 
national industries, and it is a pleasure to see the interest now being 
taken in the matter by the different County Councils, for we can¬ 
not have too much light and learning thrown upon such an interest¬ 
ing and profitable theme. 
Your Secretary asked me for a paper on the “ adaptability of 
plants to cultivation,” so I have glanced at the subject, and headed 
it, “ Culture versus Nature.” The fact really is, we do not know 
much of the adaptability of plants until we actually cultivate 
them, each for ourselves ; for one of the charms of gardening is 
the ever-varying development of the same plant under different 
cultural conditions. Now, let us simply ask ourselves. What is the 
meaning of the word “ culture,” as applied to plants ? Culture to 
us means improvement ; and as Pope has it— 
“ If vain our toil. 
We ought to blame the culture, not the soil.” 
Then culture or improvement consists of many things. Firstly, 
for example, the plant selected is isolated ; thus competition with 
other plants for food, and light, and air, and space is removed. 
Not only does the gardener thus enable a plant to naturally gain 
the most advantages from any one selected plot of soil, but he 
often augments the food supply by irritating the soil and by 
adding special plant food or manures for special crops, while 
pruning and training often increase the resultant crop by securing 
that growth force can develop freely along definite lines, and 
just where and when it is most wanted, or when the greatest 
strain of fertility bears upon the plant as an individual. 
Now, Culture versus Nature is a big question ; and secondly, 
let us ask ourselves point blank whether culture of the best ever 
surpasses Nature at her best ? In asking this question I do not 
wish to limit your views of culture to the glass house or market 
garden point of view ; but I do ask it from the cultivator’s or 
human standpoint, and not from Nature’s point of view, which is 
often, if not always, very different. As thus limited there can be 
no doubt but that culture “ is an art that doth mend Nature, 
change it rather, but the Art itself is Nature.” That is a very 
suggestive history in the Bible, of Cain with his flocks and herds, 
and of his brother Abel, who cultivated the fruits of the earth, 
and it shows to us how early the practice of cultivating wild 
plants and the taming of wild animals began. 
As an example of what I mean by improvement, let us take 
the common Yiolet (Viola odorata), as existing on a soil where it 
grows and flowers very luxuriantly, and on the same soil the 
gardener will easily surpass Nature, as I said before, from the 
human point of view. It is so abroad in tropical lands where Pine 
Apples or Bananas exist in what I may call a state of Nature, much 
finer crops of fruit being gained by culture ; and the same is true 
in Asia Minor with the Fig and the Vine. Of all fruits, perhaps 
No. 625.—VoL. XXIV., Thibd Skribs. 
the Vine is the one most amenable to changed conditions— i.e. 
culture—and even allowing that Grape growing in Great Britain is 
the best in the world, yet, I believe, still finer cultural results could 
be obtained at Alicante and elsewhere in S.E. Europe or Asia 
Minor where the Vine is more thoroughly at home. 
Cultivation really means the conservation and enhancing of 
growth, force, or energy for particular ends or aims. One of the 
earliest and hardest lessons for a gardener to learn is to rid his 
mind of prejudice in plant culture. As a rule, we want plants to 
grow where we like rather than where the plant likes, and some¬ 
times the man and the plant are not agreed on the point, for the 
question of position, of moisture, and of shelter is one the plant 
naturally knows and feels more of than the man, and though 
the plant cannot speak, its evidence to knowing eyes is 
unmistakeable. 
I must now define what I mean by the human point of view, 
as before alluded to. Well, it very often means succulent leaves, 
or large pulpy fruits, or large many-petalled or shapely flowers, 
rather than the perfectly ripened seeds, actual life, and not mere 
beauty, after which Nature more generally strives. Flowers, 
fruit, or vegetables are the gardener’s object, but Nature is lost 
unless she goes to the end of her cycle of growth, and finishes up 
by ripening her seeds. With us the gardener and the seed 
grower find it more economical to complete the cycle by 
co-operation, the one growing produce, and the other ensuring 
the seed. I have sketched out culture as embracing isolation of 
the crop, irritation and irrigation of the earth, pruning and 
training, and manuring or special feeding, all factors in good 
culture, but factors of widely different value in various localities 
and soils. In a word, it is a gardener’s duty to adapt his methods 
of cultivation to suit his crops, rather than for him to expect 
plants to adapt themselves to his system of culture. The best 
cultivators are facile and elastic in their methods, and so succeed 
where the “ rule-of-thumb ” practitioner of ten fails. It has been 
said “ Many men, many minds,” and so of plant culture one may 
say, “Many gardens, many methods.” We must not be dictatorial 
on this question, but preserve a broad and catholic frame of mind ; 
for a course of practice perfectly successful in one place may 
happen to be the very worst to adopt in another, where geology 
and climate may be different. 
If we study the cultural practice of, say, the best Peach or 
Grape growers in England, in France, and in America, we shall 
perceive at once how necessary it is that cultural methods must 
perforce vary, in order to be successful under different climatic 
conditions. But we need not go so wide in our geography to 
note the truth of this statement, for gardeners will tell us that 
Apples and Pears, or Strawberries or Plums, or any other garden 
plants, vary enormously as grown in different gardens adjacent 
to each other, or even as grown in different parts of the same 
garden. That Orchids will thrive in one part of a hothouse, and 
not in another, is a fact well known to all cultivators of these 
plants. Moisture and shade may have something to do with this ; 
but all stiff-leaved Orchids, such as Cattleyas, Lselias, &c., in 
growing, erect or deflect their leaves at a certain angle, so as to 
receive a certain amount of light, and when once the leaves 
harden or stiffen, they cannot alter their position, and so, if 
shifted, or turned round so as to expose the backs of their 
leaves to sunlight, great harm is often unconsciously done. A 
Fuchsia, or a Pelargonium, readily readjusts its leaves to altered 
conditions of light, but to many Orchids this is impossible. 
The main facts that influence vegetation may be set down as 
light, heat, moisture, and the nitrogen-absorbing and yielding 
qualities of the soil. Elevation, shelter, and aspect influence these 
in a marked degree. I have elsewhere said that the gardener, 
like the poet, is born, rather than made, but other things being 
equal, of course, in all arts, the most logical practitioner is sure to 
succeed best. In a word, cultural success is a matter of accurate 
No. 2281.— VoL. LXXXVL, Old Series. 
