MODERN IMPROVEMENTS OF GARDENING. 433 
countless thousands of apes, which make the early morn literally hide¬ 
ous with their cries, and the females of some of which may be occasion¬ 
ally found descending to the brook in order to wash the faces of their 
little ones. So, also, we should never taste a clove or a nutmeg without 
being wafted to the spicy islands of the oriental Archipelago, where all 
is in the vigour of growth and beauty, and the richness of perfume; 
where perpetual health is wafted on the gentle gales of the widest 
ocean of the globe; where some of the fruits combine the qualities of 
their own tribe with the substantial nourishment of delicate animal 
food, and the admixture of a cooling ice and a cheering cordial; while 
the trees around us w r ould be thronged with the loveliest of birds, and 
the birds of Paradise, with their long and filmy feathers streaming in 
every direction through the air like meteors—meteors which shine but 
do no harm. 
But we must stop, for there is no end of the catalogue, and it is an 
exhibition of which we must not see too much at a passing glance. We 
have mentioned these few particulars merely to let those who are yet 
in ignorance of the subject know how well the world is worth our stu¬ 
dying ; how richly the earth which we inhabit has been endowed by its 
bountiful maker ; how full the feast which it affords to all; and yet 
how varied, how free from surfeiting, how healthful.— Mudie s Earth. 
Modern Improvements of Gardening. —Like all other arts 
that of gardening has advanced wonderfully during the last threescore 
years. Before the commencement of that period, there were but com¬ 
paratively few shining lights among the great body of practical men. 
Philip Miller was during his whole life “ the prince of gardeners; ” 
his writings became a code of horticulture, and his dictionary was the 
text-book as well of his cotemporaries, as to many of his posterity. 
As an authority he had no rival, although it is pretty well known that 
he was beholden to many of his brother nurserymen and practical gar¬ 
deners for many of the most valuable parts of his book. Miller was, in 
fact, more of a botanist than a gardener; his situation, as secretary to 
the first gardening society established in London, and afterwards cura¬ 
tor of the Apothecaries’ Botanic Garden at Chelsea, gave him fine 
opportunities to become acquainted with plants, and with the then 
system of botany as taught in the writings of Tournefort and Ray. A 
wrathful and disappointed man he was, when the celebrated and learned 
Linne promulgated his sexual system, which so soon superseded that of 
Tournefort. “ What!” said he, “is a bov from the obscure univer- 
sity of Upsal come amongst us to upset the systems of older and wiser 
men ? is a Swedish stripling to be allowed to pluck the laurels from 
the brows of such eminent men as our own Grew and Ray, and all the 
VOL. IV.—NO. LIII. 3 B 
