December 5. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
175 
Russian empire is that continuation of valleys arranged 
in a natural amphitheatre at the southern base of 
Taurida (the Crimea), along the coasts of the Black Sea. 
The climate is little different from that of Anatolia and 
Asia Minor; winter is hardly felt, the Primrose and the 
Crocus appear above the ground in the month of 
January, and the Oak retains its green foliage through¬ 
out the year. No part of Taurida, perhaps of the whole 
empire, affords the botanist a greater variety of plants, 
or the husbandman a richer harvest. The evor-verdant 
Laurel grows beside the Olive, the Pomegranate, the 
Fig, or the Date tree, which might have been brought 
to the country in ancient times by Greek colonists. 
The manniferous Ash, the Mustich, the Sumach, the 
Bladder-nut, the Sage-leaved Cistus, the Emerus and 
the Arbute of Asia Minor flourish in the open-air. The 
Walnut, and almost every kind of fruit-tree, thrives in 
the woods, or, rather, the natural gardens in the valleys. 
The Caper bush is scattered along the coast, the wild 
Vine reaches to the tops of the highest trees, descends 
again to the ground, and forms, with the Viburnum, 
festoons and garlands. High hills, masses of rocks, 
streams and cataracts, verdant fields and woods, and the 
sea that bounds the horizon, render the landscape equal 
to any imagined or described by poets. The simple life 
of the good Tartars, their cottages cut in the solid rock 
and concealed by the thick foliage of surrounding 
gardens, the flute of the shepherd, his flocks scattered 
on solitary hills, remind the stranger of the golden age. 
The traveller leaves the peoplo with regret, and envies 
the destiny of mortals ignorant of war, the frauds of 
trade, and luxury accompanied with all its vices.” 
Botanists, from their acquaintance with the nature of 
plants, are, certainly, good .judges on climate—witness 
the writings of Dr. Royie, Dr. Joseph Hooker, poor Mr. 
Gardiner, who died lately in Ceylon; and others of less 
note; but, for my part, i would take the experience of a 
good practical gardener, in any part of the world, as 
soon, if not sooner than the “ deductions” of scientific 
reasoning from the animal or vegetable kingdoms ; and 
I am happy to say, I have such experience from a 
thorough good gardener, who lived thirteen years in the 
Crimea—from 1838 to 1852. 
When I was charging my memory, the other day, to 
get out the sharp points in my first attempts at garden¬ 
ing, I found a mine of good texts to write about for the 
next twelvemonths, and this is one of them. 
The gardener, Mr. James Sinclair, was “boy” at 
Altyre, when I was a big man there,—“ a foreman in the 
plant department” of that famed establishment for 
plant novelties, for dancing nursemaids, and for spruce 
young gardeners. The Messrs. Knight and Perry, of 
the Exotic Nursery, King’s Road, Chelsea, recommended 
my friend to Prince Woronzotf, and he went out with a 
large collection of different things to the Crimea, by 
sea to Constantinople, and hence across the Black Sea 
to Yalta, the finest place on the south coast of the 
Crimea, and not very far to the east of Balaklava. Here 
the prince has a splendid mansion, garden, hothouses, a 
deer park, and 3000 acres of vineyard ; the name of the 
place is Marsanda; there is no place in England more 
aristocratic, nor half so grand in scenery. A great tract 
of tire country here lies open to the morning sun over 
the Euxine, and is backed by ranges of lofty hills 
covered with wood to near their summits; straths, and 
glens, sheltered from the north and east winds, pasture 
vast herds of cattle as comfortable as in any part of 
Devonshire; and for “gentlemen’s seats,” we have nothing 
like it in England. With us, the great people scatter 
themselves all over the face of the country, but on the 
southern shores of the Crimea, the Russian nobles flock 
together in winter, to escape the severity of their northern 
climate; and here, in a delicious climate, they enjoy every 
luxury which money can command, except good servants 
and intelligent labourers; but British servants, who, can 
resist the drunken habits of the place, do very well 
there. My friend turned tee-totaller the first season he 
was there; he had some military rank, which I forget, 
and was considered a great, man by the natives. After 
bis return we were a good deal together, both here and 
in London, and he was much amused at finding, after a 
lapse of twenty-six years, that physical geography 
was still my forte and favourite pursuit; and that of all 
places in the world, I knew least about the plants and 
climate of the Crimea. To make up for lost time, 
however, Mr. Sinclair opened my eyes and ears, and 
kept them on the stretch till he believed me just as 
capable of writing A Cottaoe Gardener for the whole 
of the Crimea, as I was to write in this for home con¬ 
sumption. 1 should not like to say so much myself; 
but when the Allies take possession of the Crimea, and 
keep it for themselves, if a gardening calendar, or 
something in that way were wanted by the English part 
of the population out there, I think T could write it to 
be near enough to suit the first four or five miles inland, 
from Eupatoria to Kaffa, at least. 
The open-air calendar of gardening for that, the south 
coast of the Crimea, with the exception of some few sow¬ 
ings in April, would suit, to a nicety, the whole south 
coast of England, from Cardigan to Harwich. If you 
place Eupatoria in Cardigan Bay; contract the Bristol 
Channel to the dimensions of the inlet before Sebastopol, 
and put Torquay at the head of the bay, to represent 
Inkerman; make the Land’s End, Cape Khersonese, 
and the Isle of Wight, Balaklava, and so od, down to 
Harwich, which represents Kaffa; then add our south- 
coast climate to that of the Crimea, and we are not far 
short of the mark. 
The winters are just as variable in the Crimea as 
they are in London or Edinburgh, but not so long. The 
summers are much warmer and longer than with us; 
the spring is earlier and the autumn is later there than 
here. Occasionally, but at long intervals, the frost is 
harder there than in England, by a few degrees, but 
does not last so long; for several winters, in succession, 
the snow never lies long on the coast, and the same 
kinds of plants donot require the same amount of 
protection in hard winters there as they do on the 
coast of Devonshire, because they ripen better by the 
hot summers in this part of the Crimea. The climate, 
however, is more relaxing than with us, and low bilious 
fevers creep on more and more, on our people, after the 
first few years; but my friend was seven years in the 
Crimea before he felt the effects of this climate; and, at 
last, he was reluctantly obliged to come home, to recruit 
his strength, “on leave of absence,” with a promise to 
return, after a year or so, with new and improved breeds 
of plants and animals, and may be to plant vineyards 
on the shores of the Bosphorus, when the prince, his 
master, “ occupied the seat of the Sultan in Stamboul;” 
but Menschikoff made a mess of it, and sent off my 
friend and fellow-labourer, before I wrote the calendar 
of operations for the gardens of the Crimea; but he is 
safe, and so will our soldiers be, for anything of a winter 
they may meet with there. 
Common and Water Melons are sown there in April, 
in a hotbed, and by the end of May they are planted 
out in the open ground, where they ripen as well as in 
any part of Spain, or Portugal; Tomatoes, Capsicums, 
and Tobacco, every one grows and preserves from the 
open fields. Figs, Peaches, and Apricots ripen on open 
standards, and the Vines are never stopped, or pinched, 
during the whole summer. Not a knife, or hook, ever 
touched the Vines on thousands of acres of them along 
that coast, from Balaklava to Kaffa, for the last dozen 
years, at least; but they are well pruned in the winter. 
Tomatoes, Capsicums, Onions, Garlic, and Capers, are 
the favourite vegetables with the natives. The whiskey 
