r
P a r t I.
146 The nurserymen o f Genoa, Nervi, and Leghorn supply Britain chiefly with orange
and lemon trees ; but they send also some bulbs and other flower roots and flower seeds.
Culinary seeds haye been aheady mentioned, § 136.
SOBSECT. 6. Italian Gardening, as a Science, and as to the Authors it has produced.
147. J?;/ die establishment o f professorships o f botany and botanic gardens, in the sixteenth
century, the Italians hayo materially contributed to the study of the yegctable kmgdom
withoift some knowledge of the physiology of whch, the practice of gaixlcmng must
be entirely cmphical. Malpiglii is considered the father of yegetahle physiology m Italy
I t must be confessed, however, that the scicntiflc knowledge of the Itahans is chiefly
conflned to their professors and learned men : the practical gardener is yet too igiiorant
either to study or to nuderstaiid the subject; and too much prejudiced hy old opimons
to receive new ideas, or too indifferent to tvisli to he informed Some exceptions must
be made in favotu- of such gardeners as have been apprenticed in bótame and eminent
gardens, or under inteUigent Gormans, who are here and there to he found supcimtend-
iim tho gardens of the nobles. The hybridising the Cucumis tribe by proximity, and
tlm striking phenomena o fth e male and female hemp, have introduced some v a p e idea
o fth e sexuality of vogctahles ; hut the use of leaves, by fin- the most important know-
lege which a gai-denor can possess, seems nowhere understood hy ordinary mastei-
girdeners. Graftmg and layering are practised without any knowledge of the effects ot
fhc returning sap, or of tho exclusion of air and light. Nothing ca.n he worse than the
practice of budding orange trees at N e rv i; to he oonviMed ot wfocli, Í»
k r y to compai-e the plants imported thence with those brought from Malta oi Pans.
The culturo of the vine, the olive, and the fig belongs to the rural economy ot the
country ; that of the vine is abundantly careless ; and the practice of the caprihcation
of the fig, though laughed at by the professors, is still followed in various places neai
Rome “t o ^ observances are still followed by the gardeners in most parts of
Italy. With the Romans it was customary, before any grand operation of agriculture
was undertaken, to consult or invoke the god of that department; as of H o ra , Pomona,
&c and to pay attention to the age of the moon, and to other signs. A good deal ot
this description of ceremony is stiU carried on, in general economy, hy the priests and
farmers; aud gardening has not yet entfrely thrown off tho saíne ma,rks of ignoianoe
aud religious slavery. Many gardeners regulate their sowing of kitchen-crops b y th e
moon • others call the priests to invoke a blessing on large breadths of any mam ciop ;
some, on miner occasions, officiate for themselves; and we have seen a poor mai-ket-
gardéncr at Savona, muttering a sort ol grace to the Virgin over a bed of “ ew-sown
onions Clarioi, who puhUshed Istoria e Coltura delle Piante, &c. so late as 1726,
countenances most of these practices, and desoribes many absurd and foolish ceremonies
used for procuring good crops, and destroying insects.
149 The Italian authors on gardening are not numcrotis. The earhest writers on
rural subjects appear to have considered agiicultm-o of more importance than gardming ;
aud thouo-h there was a poem entitled I I Giardino hy Marino Angioneso^ pubhshed at
Naples as early as 1490, and a work called L a ViUa byBartolemeo Taegio, 4to, printed
a t Milan in 1559 ; yet both works contain rather an enumeration of gardens, than any
thimr relating to the art of gai-dening. The first work exclusively devoted to gm-deutng
is the Manuah dei Giardinieri of F riar Augustine Mandirola, which was published at
Vicenza in 1652. In 1726 was published the work of Bartolemeo Clarici before alluded
to • and in 1768, Fathe r Filippo Arena published at Palermo a work in three volumes,
with many plates, on the natm-e and cultm-e of flowers. This work was partly translated
from the Flora, seu de Florum Cultura, of Baptist Ferrari, but without adopting the
puerilities which disfigm-e that hook. Among some smaller works may he “ ““ ‘“ F a
two on the art of cultivating the pine-apple without ‘he aid of Are h e a t; one published
at Turin in 1777, and the other at Florence in 1797. The first Itohan work on what is
called English gardening was published hy Piacenza at Milan m 1805, and ™ / tkc
„ubni- endeavours to prove that the Itahans instructed tlie Enghsh m this kind of
gardening which he says was practised hy the ancient Romans. Count Hcioules
Silva’s D e lt Arte de’ Giardini Inglesi, published at Milan m 1809, is
tion of Hfrschfeld’s great work on the subject. Pindemonte, Mahfl, and Fihppo Re,
are three other celebrated Italian writers on gardening, the latter being by far tho most
voluminous.
Sect. II. O f the Revival, Progress, and present State o f Gardening in Holland and the
Netherlands.
150. Gardening was first brought to a high degree o f perfection in Holland and the
NetUrlands. The crusades, in the twelfth century, are generally supposed to have
B ook I .
excited a tarte for biulding and gardening in the north of Europe. But. from Stephanus
and Gesner, it would appear that the Dutch had had some taste for plants even
previously to this period. It is to be regretted that scarcely any materials are to be
u i compose such a liistoiy as this interesting circimistance requires
Harte {Essays on Agriculture) conjectoes that the necessities arising from the original
banenness of the soil (that of Flanders having been formerly like what Arthur Young
describes Norfolk to have been neai-ly a centmy ago), together with a certain degree of
liberty, the result of the remoteness of the situation from kings and priests, may have
contributed to improve their agriculture; and that the wealth acquired by the commercial
men oi Holland,’ then the most eminent merchants lu in wid the world,wuiiu, uuuuicu enabled xiiem them to to inamge
indulge
i n COUntl'V n nnsD c nn<l fTQivtanc. n-n/I c___i -r. . . . , . P
m countiy houses and gardens, and to import foreign plants. It is certain that the
Dutch flowers principally illy cultivated „ .„ .™ are all Oriental, as the me raimncmus,ranunculus, anemone, UUip,
tulip,
lyacinth, naicissus, &c. mUnc-These rt n no r . 71,-,.,doubt I,* came X,to them from V ru Constantinople,. .. , perhaps
- ’
not before 14o3, at frie fall of the Eastern Roman Empire, when the Greeks fled into
Italy, ih cn ce the flowers might have migrated to Vienna, and into Holland: or
perhaps might have been canied by the Ai'abians into Spain, and thence transplanted
by Charlemagne into Holland and the Netherlands. Beckmann says, “ I think I may
with gTcat probability assert, that the modern taste for flowers came from Persia to
Constantinople, and was imported thence to Europe, for the first time, in the 16tli
centmy. By whatever means, however, the bulbous flowers of the East may have
reached tlie Dutch, it is certain that one cause why they have at an eai-ly period excelled
m then- culture is, that the climate and soil of Holland are singularly favourable
for horticultm-e and floriculture; the two departments of gardening in which the Dutch
are most eminent.
151. The taste fo r gardening in Holland and the Netherlands has greatly increased since
the peace of 1815. The Horticultural Society of the Netherlands is, perhaps, one
of the richest m Europe, having a capital of nearly 20,000/.; and possessing, at Brussels
one of the handsomest gardens on the Continent. A horticultural society has also been
formed at Ghent, which is in a most flourishing condition ; and both these societies are
m con-cspondence with a great number of minor ones in the provinces.
SuESECT. 1. Dutch and Flemish Gardening, as an A r t o f Design and Taste.
152. The Dutch are generally considered as having a particular taste in gardening ; yet
^ e ir gardens, Hirschfeld observes, appear to differ little in design from those of the
hrench. The characteristics of both ai'c symmetry, and abundance of ornaments. The
only difference to be remarked is, that the gardens of Holland are more confined, more
covered with frivolous ornaments, and more intersected with still and often muddy pieces
of water. The gardens of Rysivick, Houslaerdyk, and Sorgvliet were, in the beginning
ot the last centuiy, the most remai-kable for geometrical beauty of form, richness in trees
^ d plants, and careful preservation. I t is singular, our author obsen^es, that tlic
Dutch ai-e fond of intersecting then- gardens with canals and ditches of stagnant water,
which, so far from bemg agreeable, are muddy and ugly, and fill the air with umvhole-
some vapours. Yet they cai-ry this taste, which has no doubt originated in the nature
ot tfmii- counti-y, to the East In d ie s; aud the numerous country-houses belonging to
the Dutch settlement in Batavia are all furnished with gai-deiis and canals like those
111 the neighbom-hood of Amsterdam; as if to render the unwholesome air of tliat
countiy still more dangerous. Eveiy field is there crossed by a c a n a l; and houses on
eminences ai-e suiTouiided at great expense by moats and drawbridges like those of the
Hague. Such is the influence of habit and the love of countiy.
153. Gi'assy slopes, green terraces, and straight canals, are more common in Holland
than in any other countiy of the Continent, because the climate and soil ai-e favourable
for tmrf; and these A^erdant slopes and mounds may b e said to form, with their
oblong canals, the characteristics of the Dutch style o f laying out grounds. “ In the
Netherlands most of the ancient countiy houses are surrounded with Avater, haA^e a re-
giilar drawbridge, and a tower gateAvay beyond it, leading into a square comt. The principal
living rooms are on the first floor; and the Avindows of the gTonnd floor are small,
and secured by iron gratings. Many examples may be seen in the fine etchings of
Rademaker.” {G. Laing Meason.)
154. A s a specimen o f the Dutch style o f laying out grounds in the seventeenth century, wc
shaU here give a short acpount of the palace and gardens at Loo {fig. 32.), during the
time of William I I I , abridged fi-om Ham-is’s Description o f Loo, 4to, London, 1699.
of England, about 1G90, and it was completed
Harris describes it as ranking with the first palaces in
Englmd Md on the Continent. The gardens are,” he says, “ a work of wonderful magnificence, most
ninP prodigious expense, infinite variety, and curiosity; and, after
SerferHoD l i nU ^ of workmen, thev were, some years ago. entirely finished and brought to
pertection m all respects. The situation is on the east side of a large sandy heath, in th e province of
E 2
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