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I-IISTORY OF GARDENING.
from Domcnicliino, arnXJig. 28. from Claude), afford the most beautiful combinations of
architectural forms and i-crdaiit scenery.
119. The union o f architecture and gardening has been better managed in Italy than
in any other cou n try ; for, as G. L. Meason observes, the gardens were often designed
by the same hand as the ai'cliitecture and the sculptm*e; and hence all “ concm- in the
general effect to produce perfect harmony.” The gardens are frequently laid out “ in
different stages following the slope of a hill, and presenting a great variety of stairs,
fountains, alleys of trees, and flower plots, the whole terminated b^j' a siimraer-Iiouse or
casino.”
SuBSECT. 2. Italian Gardening, in res]
Flowers
:t to Botanic Gardens, and the Culture o f
■nts o f Ornament.
120. Flowers appear to have been little cultivated by the Italians previously to the tenth
century. The introduction of the Christian religion as a national worsliip, though at
present favom-able, was at first adverse to the use of flowers. Tertullian and Clement of
Alexandria, in the second centiuy, inveighed against them with all their eloquence;
and the rites of religion, then carried on in gloomy vaults, were not, as now, accompanied
by bands of music, statues, pictures, and enriched altars decorated with floAvcrs.
Pietro Crescenzi, in the beginning of the fom-tecuth century, mentions only the violet,
lily, rose, gillyflower, and /'ris . Commerce began to flourish in the century which
succeeded, and various plants were introduced from the Eastern countries, by the
Avealthy of Venice and Genoa.
12 1. The earliest private botanic garden was formed at Padua, by Gaspar de Gabrieli,
a wealthy Tuscan noble, at considerable expense. I t was accomplished iu 1525 ; and,
though not a public institution, it was open to all the ciuious. To tins garden succeeded
that of Cornari at Venice, and Simonetta at M ila n ; those of some convents at Rome,
and of Pinella, at Naples, with others enumerated by botanical liistorians. (C. Spreng.
H is t, lib. iii.; Haller, Bibl. B o t, vol. i. p. 264.; Tiraboschi, Stor. della Lett. Ital. Gesner,
H o rt German.; Stephanus de R e Hortense.)
122. The f r s t public botanic garden established in Em-ope appears to have been that
of Pisa, which was begun, according to Deleuze, in 1544, by Cosmo de’ Medici; and
Ghini and C^salpini, celebrated botanists, were successively its directors. Bclon, a
French natm*alist, who rvas at Pisa in 1555, was astonished at the beauty of the garden,
the quantity of plants it contained, and the care taken to make them prosper. In the
beginning of the eighteenth century, a great accession was obtained to the gai'den by
the double flowers of Holland, then introduced into Italy for the first time. {Calvio,
H is t Pisani.) The garden of Florence was established in 1544 {Targioni, Prod.
Chorograpli. Toscan.) ; that of Bologna, under Pope Pius V., by Lucas Ghinus, the first
professor of botany in Europe, in 1547, or, according to some, in 1568 ; and tbat of
Rome soon aftenvai-ds. From that time to the present day, the numbers of botanic
gardens have been continually increasing, so that there is now one belonging to almost
every principal city in I ta ly ; an exertion the more remarkable, as botanic gardens in
that country ai’e proportionably more expensive than in England, from the necessity of
conveying a stream of water to them, and forming a regular system of irrigation.
123. The botanic garden at Padua was established in 1545, as appears by a decree
of the senate of the republic of Venice, bearing date the 30th of Ju n e in th a t year, in
which it is stated that the garden was founded in compliance with the request of the
professors and students of medicine in the college, and more particularly at the entreaty
of Francis Bonafcde, at that period lecturer on simples, which is equivalent to what is
noAv called professor of materia medica. The gai-den was formed and planted by
Daniel Barbero, a native of Aquileja, and as soon as it was founded the direction of it
was intrusted to Louis Anguillara, a Roman, with the title of herbalist and master. In
1563, what may be called a chair of botany was instituted, imder the name of a demonstration
of herbs, to distinguish it from the materia medica, which wQiS called lectures
on herbs. The study of botany being highly esteemed by the republic of Venice, it was
eveiy year at considerable expense in sending intelligent persons to its islands in the
Levant, and also to Egypt, and even to Lidia, to collect plants to em-ich this garden.
Under the Austrian government some fine hothouses were erected, together wdth three
moveable consei-A-atories, that is, glass stmctm-es wliich ai-e removed in spring. The
garden is surrounded on the north and west by a branch of the river Brenta. The
central part is enclosed and siuTounded by a wall sui-mounted by a cornice, on wbicli
there is an elegant stone balustrade. This part is divided into many regular compartments
edged with stone, and protected by fron rails. The area of these compartments
is also subdivided into beds, divided from each other by means of borders of violets.
Each bed contains only one species of plants, which by this means are more easily
taken care of and cultivated. One of the four largo compartments is allotted to the
growth of medicinal plants wliich can grow in the open air, and which serve for the
instruction of the pupils iu medicine. Four large walks intersect the part just described,
in the form of a cross ; at the end of each there is an entrance gate, fui-nished with
colossal pilasters, ornamented at top by an Etruscan vase of stone, containing the fig-ure
of a plant (generally an agave) of iron painted green, enclosed by massive and elegant
iron rails with bronze ornaments. Twelve fountains play in tliis enclosure ; besides
these, there ai-e also two large reseiwoirs for aquatic plants. Southward lies the gi-ove,
or arboretum, of the garden, which, although almost destroyed by the memorable hail in
1834, has still some trees remaining, which, by their girt and height, attest the antiquity
of this establisliment. To the north of the centi-al part, already described, are situated
the ample magazines, sheds, reserve-gi-ound, &c., of the garden, the conservatories, and
the hothouses. The latter buildings are scientifically constructed, and command a fine
view. The range is 18 feet long, and is divided into seven houses, the largest of which
is in the centre, and serves as a stove : at the right and left of this are two houses,
which ai-e not heated ; that on the right contains a stage for plants ; the otlier, on the
left, is beautifully an-angcd for the reception of seeds and fniit. Beyond the one
containing the plants is a dry stove, to which succeeds a warm greenhouse of equal size.
Next to the seed-room is a hothouse, in which the plants are not kept in pots, but planted
in the borders, the heat circulating under them. This hothouse contains beautiful
specimens of the banana {Musa paradisìaca), some of which flower and ripen their
fniit ahnost every year, and a Ficus stipulàta, the numerous branches of which entirely
cover the walls. Beyond this is another greenhouse for New Holland plants. All these
houses are heated by flues. The garden is celebrated for a rich collection of succulent-
plants. It contains two houses, one occupied by the tivo principal gardeners of the
establishment, and the other, wliich is much lai'ger, is the dwelling of the dfrector and
professor of botany, in which the licrbarimn of the garden is kept. This herbai-iuin
in 1839 contained more than six tliousand species, aud collections in wax of exotic
if uits and fungi. There is also a librai-y, consisting of more than five thousand volumes,
chiefly botanical works, which was left for the use of his successors by Professor Bonato.
{Gard. Mag. vol. xv. p. 319.)
The botanic garden a t Venice, formerly th e garden of the monastery of San Giobbe, possesses no
g reat collection of plants. There is another sm ^ l botanic garden near Venice, belonging to a gentleman
who cultivates botanical science. (Cadell's Carniola, p. 69.) The very neat little botanic garden
Della Sapienza is near th e Aqua Paolo, one of the finest fountains in Rome. In this garden Galilfe saw
many flowers in bloom in the month of Janua ry ; and th e gardener gave him very large, and what would
have been in London very costly, nosegays for a few bacciochi. (Galiÿe’s Italy, p. 403.) At Palermo
there is a good botanic garden, in which th e sugar-cane, the Papyrus, the banana, and th e date palm
will be found growing in the open air. (Wood's Lettersof an Architect, vol. i. p. 341.) In Lombardy, when
the park a t Monza was laid out, in 1808, th e governor a t th a t time, seeing th a t th ere was a great want
of ligneous plants in th e country, formed a kind of institution for diffusing th e best varieties of fruits
and of foreign and indigenous trees useful in th e arts. To this establishment was afterwards added a
school for th e instruction of twelve young gardeners in th e elements of physic, botany, meteorology,
horticulture, horticultural chemistry, geometry, drawing, and arithmetic. This school was placed
under th e direction of Signor Giuseppe Manetti. In 1814 an establishment was formed a t Milan for
procuring foreign plants.
Some private botanic gardens of th e sixteenth century deserve to be mentioned. Those of Jo. Vincent
Pinelli, a t Naples, were celebrated by Maranto ; th a t of Cæsar Niclesda, near Verona, has been described
by P en a ; a n d th o seo f Julius Moderatus a t Arimeni, and Scipio at Rome, are both mentioned by Conrad
Gesner. Belon likewise mentions a rich garden of Vincent de Monte Catino, near Lucca, celebrated
for exotic trees ; and also th a t of Nicholas Geddi a t Florence, under th e care of Benincasa.
124. A taste fo r flowers and ornamental plants has thus become genei-al in Italy; aud, at
tîiG same time, the means of gratification have been afforded, by the superabundant plants
and seeds of these gai-dens being given /iway, or sold at very moderate prices, to the
ciu-ious. About the middle of the sixteenth ccntui-y, the Dutch made regular exchanges
of their bulbous roots for the orange trees of Genoa and Leghorn ; and the double
night-smelling jasmine was introduced at Pisa from Spain, and so highly prized as to
have a sentinel placed over it by the governor. {Evelyn.) The use of flowers, it is
probable, was never entfrely laid aside in Italy as ornaments to female dress ; but, in
the progress of refinement, their application in tliis way became more general, and more
select sorts were chosen : they became in demand, both gathered in bouquets, and with
the cntii-e plants in pots ; they were used as household ornaments, both internal aud
external ; and the chm'ch, thinking that Avhat pleased man must be pleasing to the gods,
or conforming to the taste of the times, and desfrous of rendering religion as attractive
as possible to the multitude, introduced flowers as decorations of altars and statues, and
more especially in their fêtes and processions. Pots and boxes of orange trees, pomegranates,
bays, oleanders, myi-tles, and other plants, are now let out by the day, for
decorating the steps and approaches of altars ; or sold for ornamenting roofs, balconies,
verandas, coui-ts, yards, passages, halls, stafr-cases, and even shops and warehouses, in
most of the large towns of ItMy. Notwithstanding this, there is a recent instance on
record of a lady residing in Rome commencing a lawsuit against a neighbour for filling
her court-yard with orange trees, the smell of the flowers of wliich was by the other
considered as a nuisance.
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