'•!' I
'•I
'■ ii
and will probably be allowed to have been noxious. .......... .......... ..,
ceptible, it is far from being clear th a t effluvia too subtle to become a
sufficient quantities to affect with disease, ...........
in the neighbourhood, are continually breathing these
Even in cases where nothing of this nature is per-
,i.n„ I object of sense do not ascend in
r a t least with a predisposition to disease, those who, by living
•thing these mischievous exhalations.” (D w ig h t’s T ra v e ls in
N ew E n g la n d a n d Ne to Yoi'k, Svo, London, 1823, vol. ii. p. 489.)
I n Virg in ia a n d M n iijla n d almost every family mansion has its little grave-yard, sheltered by locust and
cypress trees ; and one mansion on the Delaware, near Philadelphia, has the monument which marks
the family resting-place, rearing --- ■’ - • .....................
opposite tne door of entrance.
Sion marks
aring itself in all the gloomy grandeur of black and white marble, exactly
:e. {Domestic M a n n e r s q f the Am e rica n s, vol. ii. p. 153.)
StJBSECT. 2 . Gardening in Noi'th America in respect to Botanic Gardens, and the
Culture o f Flowers and Plants o f Ornament.
858. The American government has shown itself not insensible to the advantages of
encouraging among its subjects a feeling for other pursuits than those connected with
mere mercantile speculations. Seated in a countiy rich beyond all others in stores of
botanical wealth, it would have been indeed surprising if the study of botany had not
been among the first of those objects which the American government felt itself bound
to patronise. Accordingly, wc find botanie gardens and professorships attached to the
American universities, and expeditions fitted out for the purpose of making scientific
discoveries. A t one time the country was chiefly known by the investigations of E u ropeans
; but now there arc the native names of Hosack, Elliot, Nuttall, ?I'orrey, Bai-ton,
Bigelow, and others, all of wliich deserve honourable mention for thcir exertions in
the protection or prosecution of native botanical investigations, and some of whom ai-e
held in high estimation even among Europeans. There is also a horticultural society
established at New York. {Gard. Mag., vol. i. p. 52.)
859. America is rich in hotany, especicilly in trees. Dr. Hosack, in the preface to his
Hortus Elginensis, obsen-es, “ that although much has been done by the governments of
Great Britain, France, Spain, Sweden, and Gennany, in the investigation of the vegetable
productions of America ; although much has been accomplished by the labours of
Catesby, Kalm, Wangcnheim, Schoepf, Walter, and the Michaux ; and hy our countrymen,
Clayton, the Bartrams, Golden, Muhlenberg, Marshall, Cutler, and the learned
P. Barton of Pennsylvania, much yet remains to be done in tills western p a rt of the
globe.” There were in America, at an early period, men who recommended the necessity
of instituting botanic gardens, as Lieutenant-Governor Golden and Dr. Middleton
of New York, in 1769 ; and, upon the revival of the medical school in Columbia College,
in 1792, a chair of botany was established, and Dr. Mitcliel was appointed professor.
Dr. Hosack succeeded Dr. Mitchel ; and the result was, first, the latter professor’s
establishing a botanical garden at his own expense, and afterwards government purchasing
it of him for the benefit of the medical schools of New York ; and it is now known
as the New York Botanic Garden.
860. The Botanic Garden o f New York contains twenty acres : the first catalogue was
published in 1806, and the second in 1811, containing neai-Iy 4000 species. {Statement,
§*c., as to the Elgin Botanical Garden, hy Dr. Hosack. New York, 1811.)
861. T h e fr s t systematic work upon the flora o f North America appeared in 1803, from
the pen of André Michaux, under the title of Flora Boreali-Americana. Partial floras
had been previously published by Walter, Clayton, Gronovius, and others ; but the most
extensive appeared in 1816, by F. Pm-sh, a Prussian botanist, who spent nearly twelve
years beyond the Atlantic in botanic travel, and in the management of tivo botanic
gardens ; the last that of Elgin. From the preface to this work we ai-e enabled to give
the names of the principal botanic gardens in the United States. In British America
there are none. The fu-st gardens Pursh saw were the old established gardens of
M. Marshall, author of a small treatise on the forest frees of North America. Tiiese
were rather on the decline. The botanic garden of J . and W. Barti-am, on the banks of
the Delaware, near Philadelphia (now Carr’s mu-sery), was founded by thcir father
under the patronage of Dr. Fothcrgill. The garden of the American patriot, Hamilton,
was in his time one of the richest in plants in America. Those of Dr. Hosack, Mi% Pratt,
Mr. Fox, Dr. Wray, Mr. Oemler, Mr. Young, and M. Le Conte, were also all celebrated
for their botanical riches. (See Gard. Mag., vol. viii. p. 27.)
862. The Botanical Garden at Cambridge, in tho state of Massachusetts, was commenced,
in 1801, by subscription. The object of the establishment is the promotion of
knowledge in native and foreign plants useful in agiiculture, horticulture, and medicine,
as well as the encomragcment of the sciences of botany and entomology. There being
no competent knowledge in the country as to what were the wants of a botanic garden,
the professofr Peck, was sent to Europe, and returned with plans, and a collection of
books. This garden suffered for some time fi-om want of funds, and would long since
have followed the fate of the Charleston public garden, founded by Dr. Hosack (which
was purchased by the state at the price of 70,000 dollars), and would, like it, have been
converted into a wilderness, had not the visiters applied for and obtained the aid of the
legislature of a very enlightened Icgislatm-e, who, not mistaking false maxims of
economy for true ones, saw, in the dcstmction of a great public work, great loss; deeming
that the riches and prosperity of a state arc as much promoted, to say nothing of its
reputation, by wise and generous establishments for the promotion of knowledge, as by
any financial measures. {New York Farmer, vol. i. p. 185.)
863. A botanic garden at Baltimore was commenced in 1830; and an extensive
correspondence with the nursei-ymen and curators of botanic gardens in Europe will, it
is hoped, soon procmre for it a respectable collection. {Gard. Mag,, vol. vii. p. 668.)
S u b s e c t . 3. Gardening in North America, in respect to its Products fo r the Kitchen and
the Dessert.
864. Horticulture, Judge Buel observes, received but little attention in the United
States until quite a recent period, and, with occasional exceptions, was limited to the
culture of common culinai-y vegetables and fruit. A yoimg people must earn the means
of procuring the luxuiies and elegancies of liorticultm-al refinement, before they can enjoy
them. The wants and necessities of a now country are generally too imperious to leave
much time, or to afford adequate means, for indulging extensively in the ornamental
and scientific departments of gardening; and, perhaps, the republican principles of the
government, and the habits of the people, have, in a measure, tended to retard
improvement in these higher branches. Most men are ambitious of popular favour; and
here, where all are upon a political equality, whatever savours of singular ostentation or
extravagance rather begets bad than good feelings. The Tartar conquerors conciliated
the Chinese by conforming to the laws and customs of those whom they liad conquered.
But the greatest obstacle to improvement has been the want of prominent examples.
There have been no royal gardens, no horticultm-al gai-dens, no botanical gardens (hut
in name), no public gardens, to stimulate and instruct those who might wish to cultivate
taste, or acquii'e knowledge in this branch of rural improvement. Respectable private
gardens were occasionally formed in the neighbourhood of large towns; but their number
was too small, and the access to them too limited, to produce much influence towards
general improvement. Foui- or five public nurseries arc all that are recollected of any
note, which existed in tlie States in 1810, and these were by no means profitable establishments.
About the year 1815, a spirit of improvement in horticultme as well as
agricultm-e began to pervade the country, and the sphere of its influence has been
enlarging, and the force of example increasing, down to the present time. {Gard. Mag.,
vol. iv. p. 193.)
865. The middle states o f America, says Coxe, “ possess a climate eminently favourable
to the production of the finer liquor and table apples ; and the limits of that district
of country which produces apples of the due degree of richness and flavour for both purposes
are the Mohawk River in New York, and the James River in Virginia. Apples
grow well in other places; but that exquisite flavour for which the Newton pippin and
Esopus Spitzenberg are so much admired, and which has given such high reputation to
the cider from, the Hewe’s crab, the white crab, the grey-house, winesop, and Hairison.
can only he found within the limits here described. Cold and heat are equally necessary
to the production of a fine apple, and neither must predominate in too gi’eat a degree.
Some Em-opean cider fmits have recovered tlieir reputation by being transplanted to
the more genial climate of America, where the growth of trees compared with Europe
is as five to three.” The same author is of opinion, “ that the numerous varieties of
American apples have proceeded from seeds brought there by their European ancestors;
and that none of the Indian orchards which have been discovered in America are more
ancient than the first settlement of the Em-opeans on this continent.”
866. Peaches, plums, cherries, and melons gi’ow freely in the open ah-, without any care
being bestowed on thcir culture.
867. The vine, Dr. Dean observes {New England Georgical Dictionary, in loco
Massachusetts, 1797.), “ may, without doubt, be cultivated in every latitude of the North
American states. There arc wild grapes (F iti s imlpina) in the neighbourhood of
Boston.” He has knoivn a good wine made from their ju ic e ; and seen excellent
eating grapes produced in the American gardens, without any extraordinary culture.
We have tasted an excellent wine made from tlic Isabella grape, gi-owii iu Prince’s
Nursery in Long Is la n d ; it reminded us of the hocks which we have drank at Stuttgard
and Heilbronn, in Wirtemberg.
868. The orange family, and certain palms, as we have seen (§ 853.), grow fi-ecly in
the open air • in the south-west provinces; and there can be little doubt that their
cultm-e might be extended, were it found profitable to do so. This, however, is not the
case ; as North America is supplied with exotic fruits from the West Indian islands, at
such a moderate rate, that pine-apples are sold in New York at tiu-eepence each.
{Gard. Mag., vol. viii. p. 360.) A t New Orleans, Mi-s. Trollope found “ oranges, green
peas, and red pepper, growing in the open aii’ at Chirstmas.” {Dom. Man. o f the Amer.,