I 
I 
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November 13. THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 93 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M 
W 
NOVEMBER 13—19, 1851. 
Weather near London in 1850. 
Sun 
Sun 
Moon 
Moon’s 
Clock 
Day of 
Year. 
D 
D 
Barometer. 
Thermo. (Wind. 
Rain in In. 
Rises. 
Sets. 
R.&S. 
Age. 
bef. Sun. 
13 
Th 
Green Whistling Plover seen. 
30.017 
— 29.986 
47—24 
N.W. 
_, 
16 a. 7 
13 a. 4 
1 
51 
20 
15 
36 
317 
14 
F 
Larch leafless. 
30.248 
— 30.129 
46—19 
N.E. 
— 
18 
11 
8 
56 
21 
15 
27 
318 
15 
S 
Beech leafless. 
30.293 
— 30.170 
43—31 
W. 
— 
20 
10 
10 
8 
22 
15 
18 
319 
16 
Sun 
22 Sunday after Trinity. 
30.084 
— 29.991 
52—29 
S.E. 
0.06 
21 
8 
11 
27 
€ 
15 
7 
320 
17 
M 
Titmice now houses. 
*30.094 
— 30.044 
48—35 
s.w. 
0.04 
23 
7 
morn. 
24 
14 
56 
321 
18 
Tu 
Widgeon comes. 
Sun’s declination, 19° 28's. 
29.888 
— 29.468 
55—45 
S.E. 
0.56 
25 
6 
0 
48 
25 
14 
44 
322 
19 
W 
129.098 
— 28.810 
56—42 
S.E. 
0.06 
27 
5 
2 
8 
26 
14 
30 
323 
Although we do not purpose in these biographical notes to stray far 
from the ample list of worthies who were natives of the British islands, 
yet there are a few who, by example, by precept, and by personal visits to 
our shores, had such an influence over our gardening, that they are en¬ 
titled to be tenants of one of these pages. The first of our continental 
neighbours to whom we were indebted for an impulse in this art was 
Holland, and having surpassed our teacher, we next arose to strive for 
pre-eminence with France, to whom, as a teacher, we were also largely 
indebted. At the close of the 17 th century, Louis the 14th was the lavish 
despot of that country. His vanity and ambition, however, conferred 
this benefit upon his country, and thence to such nations as had inter¬ 
course with it, that in ministering to the gratification of those passions, 
he became a munificent patron of the Arts and Sciences. Horticulture 
participated in the general encouragement. His father had commenced 
on a diminutive plan, the Trianon, but Louis the 14th ordered the creation 
of the stupendous and splendid Gardens of Versailles, Marli, and Fon- 
tainbleau. Partaking of the spirit of the monarch, the nobles and 
wealthy members of the community aimed at distinction by the display 
of Horticultural taste. Among these, the Gardens of St. Cloud, be¬ 
longing to the Duke of Orleans, were particularly to be distinguished. 
The best scholars of the country united in lauding the prevailing taste, 
and the praises of Horticulture resounded in the verses of Rapin and 
Boileau. Quintinie was the prince of French horticulturists ; as Le 
Notre was of their garden designers. 
Jean de la Quintinie was born in 1626 at Chabanais, in the old 
province of Anguumois, now included in the Department of Charente; 
and the chief notoriety of that insignificant town is his father’s residence, 
which is still preserved and pointed out. Quintinie was sent very young 
to be educated at Poictiers, and progressed rapidly in his studies under 
the tuition of the Jesuits. Being intended for the legal profession, and 
having concluded a course of jurisprudence, he then proceeded to Paris 
to be admitted as an advocate. He was beginning to be distinguished in 
his profession, when he was persuaded, by the prospect of more rapid 
advancement, to retire from the law courts, and to devote himself to the 
education of the son of one of the king’s chief ministers, M. Tamboneau. 
His leisure moments he devoted to his favourite pursuit, the cultiva¬ 
tion of the soil, and during a tour in Italy with his pupil he lost no 
opportunity for studying the gardening of that country ; nor did he 
neglect to take advantage of an interchange of opinions with the 
most distinguished European gardeners, with whom, for more than 
thirty years, he continued an extensive correspondence. Twice he 
visited England, and the proprietors of “ the stately halls” of our 
nation did not undervalue his abilities. James II., then on the throne, 
made him brilliant offers to tempt him to accept the superintendance 
of the Royal Gardens, but his love of home prevailed, and he declined 
accepting the apparently advantageous offer. It is well that he did 
so, tor James soon after lost his crown, and Quintinie would, probably, 
have lost the opportunity of creating the vast and productive fruit and 
kitchen-gardens of Versailles for his own sovereign. It has been said, 
that his horticultural correspondence, in three volumes, was published at 
London about this time, but we can find of them no traces, nor any other 
record of him in this country, except a letter dated 1668, on The Culture 
of Melons, published in Nos. 45 and 46 of The Philosophical Transactions, 
at which time he was forty-two years old. When Quintinie was 
about thirty-six, Louis XIV. had resolved to display all his mag¬ 
nificence at Versailles. Le Notre had traced out the pleasure grounds, 
and had succeeded in developing what was then considered the grand 
and the beautiful in garden decoration, and then Quintinie was called 
upon to introduce the useful. The soil of the kitchen-garden was so 
unproductive, that it had been contemplated to remove the culture of 
its inhabitants to St. Cloud. Quintinie, however, knowing the import¬ 
ance of having the kitchen-garden near the palace, determined that it 
should not be removed, and succeeded, we are told, on a space of thirty- 
six arpens, equal to about thirty English acres, in forming a kitchen- 
garden that became “ a model for all Europe,” but it was at the expense 
of more than twelve thousand pounds. He raised walls unnumbered, he 
irrigated by the aid of an extensive aqueduct with side-branches com¬ 
municating with all the beds, and he created a new soil by importing 
from a distance that which was fertile. It met with the entire approba¬ 
tion of the king, of whom it was said, “ after joining in council with 
Turenne and Colbert, he trained trees with Quintinie.” So entirely did he 
obtain the approval of his royal employer, that, in 1687, he was made 
Director-general of all the Royal Fruit and Kitchen-gardens. Sontol 
Victor thus recorded Quintinie’s success in verse :— 
At gay Versailles, the brightest Court below, 
Where pleasures dwell, and joy unmix’d with woe, 
Pomona mourn’d, nor would her grief be tame, 
Of honours void, and conscious of her shame : 
She mourn’d to see, when our auspicious king 
Made all things flourish, and restor’d the spring, 
And better days, that she alone should find 
The Heavens adverse, and prove the Earth unkind. 
In vain she planted—Earth refused the root, 
And wither’d trunks denied the promis’d fruit. 
Wreath Laurels, wreath—a lasting crown prepare, 
For learn’d Quintinius, and repay his care. 
Tho’ cold unlivening suns, and barren earth 
Oppos’d his art, nor would assist the hirth, 
He ventur’d on, and his industrious toil 
Bestow’d new beauties on the horrid soil. 
Success now flowed in upon him, and he became not only superinten- 
dant of the Royal Gardens, but of those of the chief nobility of the 
Court; he arranged those of Chantilly, for the Prince de Conde; of 
Rambouillet, for the Duke de Montausier; of St. Owen, for M. Bois- 
franc; of Sceaux, for M. Colbert; and of Vaux, for M. Fouquet. Royal 
favour was more permanent to the gardener than to higher ministers of 
the king’s will, for Quintinie was never dismissed, and died at Ver¬ 
sailles, in 1688 . Two years after Quintinie’s death, his son edited his 
father’s posthumous work, Instructions for the Fruit and Kitchen Garden, 
with a treatise on Orangeries, and some Reflections upon Agriculture. 
In 1693 , it was translated by Mr. Evelyn, and is known in England 
chiefly by that edition, which appeared under the title of The Compleat 
Gardener. Messrs. London and Wise published it under the same name, 
but abridged, in 1699 . We are told by Switzer, that Quintinie died 
lamented by all his ingenious contemporaries, and that Louis expressed 
his regret, by observing to Qumtinie’s widow:—“I am as great a 
sufferer as yourself, for I despair of ever repairing the loss I have sus¬ 
tained.” 
Meteorology of the Week. — At Chiswick from observations 
during the last twenty-four years, the average highest and lowest tem¬ 
peratures of these days are 49.5° and 35-7° respectively. The greatest 
heat, 57°, occurred on the 19th'in 1833, and the lowest cold, 18°, on the 
15th, in 1848. During the period, 78 days were fine, and on 90, rain fell. 
It lias long been known tliat, when trained against 
flue-heated or conservative walls, many plants will sur¬ 
vive our winters, which would perish if exposed to 
them, either in our borders or even against a common 
wall. Now a conservative wall protects the plants 
against it by warming the air previously to its coming 
in contact with them, and it has often been a query 
with us whether it would not be possible so to heat a 
wall and border as to preserve tender plants, sustained 
by them, in bloom and beauty all the winter, as well as 
thus to force fruit, without the protection of any glazed 
covering. Some recent facts seem to support an afiirma- 
tive answer to that query. 
At some steam saw-mills, situated at Winchester, a 
Black Hambrough Grape is trained against the steam- 
engine chimney, and a stream of hot water is running 
constantly in a gutter upon the border in which its 
roots are growing. The produce this year was extra¬ 
ordinary, both as regards the total weight of the crop 
and the fineness of the berries, and they ripened at least 
three weeks earlier than the same variety of grape on a 
similar aspect, under glass, unaided by artificial heat. 
In addition to this fact, there is the openly-exposed 
hot-water aquarium of the Messrs. Weeks, Nurserymen, 
in the King’s Road, Chelsea. We were there on a 
frosty morning at the commencement of this month ; so 
frosty was the air, that the steam arising from the water, 
heated only to 75°, could be seen in wreaths rising from 
its surface. There had been a sharp frost during the 
preceding night, yet the leaves and flower-huds ol the 
Victoria regia were green and vigorous, as were those 
of the Nymplims ccerulea and dentata, and Limnocharis 
No. CLXIIL, Vor„ VII. 
