PLEASURES OF GARDENING. 
17 
ARTICLE V.—PLEASURES OF GARDENING. 
As Gardening has been the inclination of Kings, and the choice of 
philosophers, so it has been the favorite of public and private men; 
a pleasure of the greatest, and the care of the meanest, and in¬ 
deed an employment arid profession for which no man is too high 
or too low. The interest which flowers have excited in the breast of 
man, from the earliest ages to the present day, has never been con¬ 
fined to any particular class of society or quarter of the globe. Na¬ 
ture seems to have distributed them over the whole world, to serve 
as a medicine to the mind, to give cheerfulness to the earth, and to 
furnish agreeable sensations to its inhabitants. The savage of the 
forest, in the joy of his heart binds his brow with the native 
flowers of the woods, whilst a taste for their cultivation increases 
in every country in proportion as the blessings of civilization 
extend. Love for a garden has powerful influence in attracting 
men to their homes; and, on this account, every encourage¬ 
ment given to increase a taste for ornamental gardening is 
additional security for domestic comfort and happiness. It is 
likewise a recreation which conduces materially to health, promotes 
civilization, and softens the manners and tempers of men. Flowers 
are, of all embellishments, the most beautiful, and of all created 
beings, man alone seems capable of deriving enjoyment from them. 
The love fort hem commences with infancy, it remains the delight of 
youth, increases with our years, and becomes the great ornament of 
our declining days. The infant no sooner walks than its first em¬ 
ployment is to plant a flower in the earth, removing it ten times in 
an hour to wherever the sun seems to shine most favourablv. The 
schoolboy in the care of liis little plot of ground, is relieved of his 
studies, and loses the anxious thought of the home he has left. In 
manhood our attention is generally demanded by more active duties, 
or by more imperious, and perhaps less innocent occupations; but 
as age obliges us to retire from public life, the love of flowers and 
the delight of a garden, return to soothe the latter period of our life. 
In their growth, from the first tender shoots which rise from the 
earth, through all the changes which they undergo to the period of 
their utmost perfection, he beholds the wonderful works of creative 
power ; he views the bud as it swells, and looks into the expanded 
blossom, delights in its rich tints and fragrant smell, but above all, 
he feels a charm in contemplating movements and regulations before 
which all the combined ingenuity of man dwindles into nothingness. 
If herbaceous plants require little pruning, but nevertheless, some- 
c 
