I
such things was brought into In d ia by the Mussuimen. There were aiso swing
whirligigs, and other amusements for the females of the family ; but the strangest was
a sort of “ Montagne Russe” of masonry, veiy steep, aud covered with plaster, down
which the bishop was told that the ladies used to slide. (Narrative, kc., vol. ii.
p. 293.)
752. The house and grounds o f a wealthy Hindoo merchant, a shawl manufacturer
near' Deliii, afford a specimen of Eastern domestic architecture. They comprise three
small courts surrounded by stone cloisters, two of them planted with flowering shi-ubs
and orange trees, and the third ornamented with a beautiful mai'ble fountain. (Ibid.,
p. 565.)
753. The houses o f the natives o f Dinapoor are almost all of mud, but their tiled
roofs and verandas give them a better aspect than the common Bengalee cottage. The
hocheries are very different from those of Calcutta, being littlo tabernacles, like the
movable military shrines represented on ancient monuments, with curtains and awnings,
and drawn either by one horse or two oxen (Jig. 213.). (Ibid., vol. ii. p. 243.)
754. Indian cemeteries. The ancient cemeteries in In d ia appear to have been all
accompanied by gardens. Captain Benjamin Blake, who describes the gardens of
Shall Leemar, neai- Lahore, in making excursions in the neighbourhood, “ stumbled,
as it were, upon a most magnificent mausoleum, round which was a waLod garden of
orange and pomegranate trees.” The King of Oude still keeps the tomb and garden of
his ancestor, Suffer Ju n g , in good repair ; and Bishop Hcber saw a large garden cemetery,
containing tombs and mosques, near Delhi. Tho bishop also mentions Hiunaioon’s
tomb, near Delhi, as being a noble building of granite, inlaid with marble, in a very
chaste and simple^ style o f architecture. I t is smTouuded by a large garden, with
to iTQ /v o o -fi-in-nfcii'nc o i l -n/Mir rlrt/ao-./ »T’K„ -i -i -i
l-ground near Dacca,
describes it as a wUd and dismal place, surrounded by a high wall with an old Moorish
gateway, in the centre of a wilderness and jungle.
Division ii. Gardening in Hindostán, as an A r t o f Culture.
755. The cidture o f vegetables, in India and other countries of tho East, belongs more
to what may properly be considered agriculture than to gardening, since it is performed
in the open fields, and by the same class who raise the staple commodities of human
subsistence. The culture of rice, of the pahn tree, and of the sugar-cane, which supply
almost the whole of the food of all ranks, wUl be found noticed in oui- Eneyclopeedia o f
AgricuUtire, and we shall therefore here chiefly confine ourselves to some notices respecting
botanic gai-dcns and floriculture.
756. The orchards o f Bengal ai'e what chiefly contribute to attach the peasant to his
native soil. He feels a superstitious veneration for the trees planted hy his ancestors,
and derives comfort and profit from their fruit. Orchards of mango trees diversify
evci-y part of this immense country ; the P ahnyra palm abounds in Bahar. The cocoa
nut tlu'ives in those parts which ai'e not remote from the tropic. Tlie date tree grows
every -where, but especially in Bahai-. Plantations ofthe areca or betal palm are common
in the centi-al parts of the country.
757. The culinary vegetables o f Europe have all been introduced into India. Potatoes
grown there ai-e deemed equal in quality to thoso of England. Asparagus, cauliflowers,
peas, and other esculent plants, are raised, hut they ai'e comparatively tasteless. ’
758. The dessert o f Europeans in CakuUa is distinguished by a vast profusion of most
GARDENS IN HINDOSTAN.
beautiful fi-mts procm-ed at a very moderate expense; su ch as pine-apples, plantains
mangoes, pomelmoos or shaddocks, melons of all sorts, oranges, custard apples, guavas
peaches, and an endless vaiTcty of otlier orchard fruits f t > b »
759. The botanic garden o f Calcutta was established in 1768, and has been subsequentlv
-a ft*" appointed cui-ator, it contained
only 300 species ; but tlus mdefatigable botanist soon increased tho mumber to 8500 as
appears by the catalogue of the garden printed at Singapore in 1814. Dr. Eoxhtu-nli
died m that year, and was succeeded by the no less indefatigable botanLst, Dr. Wallich
whoso botanical exertions m Nepal are well knoivn in Em-ope. The following agreeable
description of this garden is given by Bishop Hcber : — “ The botanic garden at Calcutta
IS a very beantiful and well-managed institution, em-iched, besides the noblest trees and
most beautiM plants of India, with a vast collection of exotics, chiefly coUccted by Dr.
Wa,lhch himself, in N c ^ , Pulo Penang, Sumatra, and Java, and increased by contributions
from the Cape, Brazil, and many different parts of Afi-ica and America, as well
as Australia and the South Sea Islands. I t is not only a curious, hut a picturesque and
most beautiful scene ; and more perfectly answers Mflton’s idea of Paradise, except
th a t It IS on a dead flat instead of a hill, than any thing which I ever saw. Among tlio
exotics I noticed the nutmeg-, a pretty tree, sometliing like a myi-tle, with a beautiful
pcach-hke blossom, but too delicate for the winter even of Bengal, and therefore placed
m the most sheltered situation, and carefully matted round. The sago palm is a tree of
great singularity and beauty, and in a grove or avenue produces an effect of strikincr
solemnity not unlike that oi Gothic architecture. There were some splendid South
American creepers ; some plantains, from the Malayan Ai-cliipelago, of vast size and
p-eat beauty ; a n ^ what excited a melancholy kind of interest, a little -wi-etched oak,
kept alive with diíñciüty under a sky and in a temperature so perpetually stimulating,
which allowed it no repose, or time to shed its leaves, and recruit its powers by hyber-
n p io n . _ Some of the other trees, of which I had formed the greatest expectations
clisappmnted me ; such ^ the pine of New Caledonia, which does not succeed here : at
least, the specimen which was shown me was weak-looking and diminutive, in comparison
with the prints m Cook s Voyages, the recollection of which is strongly imprinted
on my mind, though I have not looked at them since I was a boy. Of the enormous
size of tlie adansoma, a tree from the neighbourhood of Gambia and Senegal, I had heard
much ; the elephant of the vegetable creation ! I was, however, disappointed The tree
IS doubtless -wonderfril, and the rapidity of its growth is stiU more wonderful than its
bulk 5 but It is neither particularly taU nor stately. Its bulk consists in an enormous
enlargement of its circumference immediately above the roots, and for a comparatively
sman height up its stem ; wliich rather resembles that disease o fth e leg which beai-s the
elephant s name, than tapies with his majestic and well-proportioned, though somewhat
un)peldy, stature. _ Dr. Walhch Iiad the management of another extensive public establishment
at Chitty-ghur, near Bai-rackpoor, of the same nature with tliis, but appropriated
more to the introduction of useful plants into Bengal. He is himself a native of
Dcnmaa;k, but left his country young, and has devoted his life to natural histoiy and
botany m the E ^ t . His character and conversation are more than usually interesting ;
the Mst, all fr-ankness, friendliness, and aa-dent zeal for the service of science • the last
enriched by a greater store of curious information relating to India and the nei«-hbouring
countricj than any which I have yet met with. These different public establishments
used to be all cidtivated by the convicts in chains, of whom I have already spoken In
the botarne p rd e ii, then* labour is now supplied by peasants hired by the day or week ;
and the exchange is found cheap, as well as otherwise advantageous and agreeable • the
labour ot fr-eemen here, as elsewhere, being infinitely cheaper than that of slaves”
(IVarr. o f a Journey, ^c., vol. i. p. 41.) .
760. A botanic garden between the Ganges and the Jumna has lately been foimed under
the auspices of the British goverament, for the pui-pose of receiving and propagatino-
Indian plants which it is thought might be adapted for culture in Europe. The situa®
tion IS 6300 feet above the level of the sea, and, being exposed to the north, there is
thus produced, in the heart of Hindostán, a temperature no more than equal to that of
the southern pm-t of the Em-opean continent. Among the plants lately said to be introduced
are, the spurge laurel, the X>áphnc cannábina, of which, in Nepal, paper is
made ; a shrub, the Symplocos racemosa, the bark of which is used in dyeing • a
species of wheat brought from the central part of Asia, where it flourishes, on the borders
of Climese Tartary, at an elevation of 10,600 feet ; and a species of barley, ÍTórdeura
cedeste, met with m the Himalayan mountains, in fields elevated 12,000 feet above the
level of the sea. These corns are sown m the month of October, and ripen in the end
of A p ril (L e Globe.)
761. Other botanic gardens in India exist, or lately existed, at Madras, Bombay,
I cnang and Singapore ; also at Saharunpore, in the prorince of Delhi. The latter is
chiefly tor tlie purpose of collecting- medicinal and otlier plants. The Madras gai-den