HORTK 
HORTICULTURE, / [from bonus, Lat. a garden, and 
eultura, cultivation.] The art or prot'eflion of a gardener; 
the aft of planning and forming the different compart¬ 
ments of a garden, as well for bpauty, pleafure, and orna¬ 
ment, as for the propagation of elculent vegetables, the 
railing and training of fruit-trees, and the care and ma¬ 
nagement of the liot-houfe, green-houfe,.&c. 
Our idea of a garden is as ancient as the creation of 
our fir ft parents, who were placed in the garden of Eden, 
“ to till and to drefs it.” Hence it has been juftly in¬ 
ferred, that a garden is the pieafanteft, moft accommodat¬ 
ing, and healthieft, fpot for the dwelling of man; for it 
is now well known, that vegetation purges the air of its 
azotic effluvia, while the perpetual fuccefflon of odorifer¬ 
ous plants, fruits, flowers, and herbs, impregnate the fur¬ 
rounding atmofphere with arqmatic and grateful fragrance, 
highly favourable to health and longevity. Of this faft 
we have a remarkable proof, in the biographical fketch 
given of Dr. Hodges, p. 217 of this volume; who, being 
one of the phyficians deputed by the city of London to 
attend the lick and dying patients in the great plague of 
1665, wholly efcaped the infection, and preferved his life, 
by having a pan of burning coals conftantly carried be¬ 
fore him into which perfumes and aromatic herbs were 
continually thrown, to purify the air around him. Poets 
and liiftorians, both ancient and modern, have celebrated 
in lofty and captivating language the felicities of a high¬ 
ly-cultivated garden ; while the ingenious Mr. Hervey, in 
his Meditations on a Flower Garden, has fixed our con¬ 
templations on the goodnefs and benignity of Him, by 
whole bounty all things were brought into exiftence for 
the accommodation and comfort of his creature Man. 
As the firft arts of civilization took place in Alia, it is to 
the eaftern world that we muft turn our enquiries for the 
moft ancient garden. Noah, we are told, planted a vine¬ 
yard ; but Solomon furpaffed all others in the extent and 
magnificence of his garden. Flowers and fruits are par¬ 
ticularly fpoken of as the ornaments and the produce of 
it; and aromatic vegetables formed a confiderable part of 
the gratifications it afforded. The camphor and the cin¬ 
namon-tree, with all trees of rrankincenfe, and all the 
chief fpices, flourilhed there. Cant. iv. 12. Indeed we 
mult fuppofe his gardens to have been both amply and 
curioufly furnifhed, feeing the kinds, nature, and proper¬ 
ties, of the vegetable tribes, leem to have been a favourite 
Itudy with the royal philofiopher, and to have been deem¬ 
ed a lubjeft worthy of his pen ; for we are told, that he 
wrote of plants, from the lofty cedar of Lebanon, down 
to the liyffop of the wall. Kings iv. 33. Fountains and 
ftreams appear alfo to have had a fhare in the compofi- 
tion, probably for ornamenf as weil as ufe. 
The hanging gardens of Babylon were a prodigy, hav¬ 
ing been formed on the terraces and roofs of the royal pa¬ 
lace, whither foil was conveyed for that purpofe. They 
afforded the moft cooling fhade, and delicious fragrance, 
to the interior of the whole palace; but particularly to 
the apartments beneath them. 
From fuch examples, we are not to wonder, that princes 
and potentates, in every part of Afia, even down to the 
prefent time, Ihould have been more or iefs fumptuous 
and coftly in their gardens. In Perfin, the utmoft atten¬ 
tion is paid, not only to the magnificence, but to the ge¬ 
neral utility, of their gardens; and in India, or Ilindoo- 
ftan, they are rendered facred among the rajahs and chiefs, 
as the abode of their gods, and places of loft and lialaci- 
ous retirement for themfelves and favourites, betw.een the 
intervals of the toils of war, and the cares and perplexi¬ 
ties of the ftate. But the moft coftly and extenfive of all 
gardens in the world, were probably thole of Shalimar, 
belonging to the palace of the Mogul emperor Shah Je- 
Han, which coft him a million of money; and in the 
grandeur and fumptuous difplay of them, he feerns to have 
rivalled even the magnificence of Solomon himfelf. See 
u, 46 of this volume. 
In China, where the population is: too abundant for the 
CULTURE, 391 
foil, neither labour nor expence is of any confideration 
in the formation of their gardens. When a mandarin 
erefts his palace, he confiders not the fituation intended 
for his garden, r.or whether the fpot be favoured or aban¬ 
doned by the rural deities. If the latter, he invites them, 
or compels them, to return, His point is to change every 
thing from what he found it; to explode the wildnefs of 
creation, and introduce novelty and beauty. If there be. 
a wafte, he adorns it with trees; if a dry delert, he waters 
it with a canal, or floats, it with a lake. If there be a 
fmooth flat, he varies it with all poflible converfions; he 
undulates the furface; he raifes it in hills, fcoops it into 
valleys, and enlivens the fcene with broken rocks. He 
foftens afperities, brings amenity into the wfildernefs, or 
animates the tamenefs of an expanfe, by accompanying it 
with the majefty of the foreft. In the gardens of the em¬ 
peror of China are many buildings of a Angular and cu¬ 
rious nature, peculiar to that people; and there are por¬ 
tions or divifions of the garden let apart for the ladies, 
into which no ftranger can be admitted. See the article 
China, vol. iv. p.483, See. 
In Europe, which was inhabited much later, and the 
people total ftrangers to the luxuries of the eaftern world, 
we muft naturally expeft to find their gardens lefs exten¬ 
five and coftly. Even in Greece, the moft elegant and re¬ 
fined of the European ftates, we hear nothing of th e grand 
and fublime in the difplay of their gardens. Homer, in¬ 
deed, in his Odyffey, beftows great praife on the cele¬ 
brated garden of Alcinous; which, however, contained 
but four acres, and confided of no more than an orchard, 
a vineyard, beds for efculent vegetables, pomegranates, 
olives, with two fountains for a fupply of water; fo that,. 
as late as the time of Homer, we are fure that an inclo- 
fure of four acres, comprehending orchard, vineyard, and 
kitchen-garden, was the utmoft ftretch of horticultural 
luxury the European world had ever yet beheld. 
We are told by Plutarch, that, before the time of Ci- 
moh, the_ Academus, or garden of the academy, was a 
rude and uncultivated fpot; but that it was planted by 
that general,- and had water conveyed to it; but whether 
for ufe, to refrelh the trees, or for ornament, does not ap¬ 
pear. Near the academy were the gardens of Plato and 
of Epicurus; which, however, were but fmall. The fcene; 
of Plato’s Dialogue concerning Beauty is elegantly de- 
feribed as being on the banks of the river Iliflus, and un¬ 
der the lhade of the plantane; but no artificial arrange¬ 
ment of objefts is mentioned, nor any thing which will 
lead us to imagine the profpeft to be a garden, or any 
other than merely natural objefts. 
Among the Romans, a tafte for gardening, any other- 
wile than as a matter of private utility, l'eems not to have 
prevailed till a very late period ; at lead the writers on 
hufbandry, Cato, Varro, Columella, and Palladius, make 
not the leaf!: mention of a garden as an object: of pleafure, 
butfolely with refpeft to its productions of herbs and fruits. 
The Lucullan gardens are the firft wc find mentioned 
of remarkable fplendour, Plutarch fpeaks of them as in¬ 
credibly expenlive, and equal to the magnificence of kings. 
They contained artificial elevations of ground to a great 
height, of buildings projefted into the lea, and valt pieces 
of water made upon land. It is not improbable, from 
the confideration of Lucullus having fpent much time 
in Alia, that thele gardens might be laid out in the 
Afiatic ftyle. The Tufculan villa of Cicero, though 
often mentioned, is not any where aeferibed in his works, 
fo as to give an adequate idea of the ftyle in which his 
gardens or grounds were difpofed. 
There is but little to be found in Virgil relative to this 
fubjeft. Pines, according to him, were a favourite Orna¬ 
ment in gardens; and flowers, particularly- rofes, were 
much elteemed. The Pieftan rofes were moft valued for 
their excellent odour; and the fame quality appears to be 
the caufe why they were placed by Tibullus as ornaments 
to the Elyfian fields. Pliny has left us deferiptions of two ■ 
of his villas; but, as he uled his Laurentine villa for his 
■winter 
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