HISTORY OF GARDENING. P a r t I. B o o k I. DUTCH GARDENS. 61
part of the grounds round the house has been given in the Horticultural Tour, from which
our engi-aving is copied.
170. The place o f M . Smetz is the finest near Antwerp. I t was laid out in 1752,
in the Dutch and partly in the English taste, and contains, at present, scenes of
tonsiic evergreens, vistas, canals, lakes, secret waterworks, caves, tombs, a lawn with a
flock of stone sheep, a shepherd and dogs, dwarfs, a drunkard, and other paltry contrivances.
There are, however, good span-roofed hothouses, rustic seats, fine exotic trees,
especially the puiple beech (which here seeds freely, and comes purple from the seed),
catalpa, and liquidambar, fine collections of dalilias, Asclèpias tuberósa, and Xilium
superbum, in extensive groups ; and on the whole “ as many natural beauties as can be
expected in a flat country, and instances of good taste and judicious management
more than counterbalanced by those of an opposite description.” (NeilVs Hort. Tour,
p. no.)
171. Cemetery gardens, thoMgh. first commenced, in modem times, b y th e Emperor
Joseph, in the Netherlands, are not yet become common. Trees, however, are frequently
planted in churchyards. A citizen of Amsterdam, N. Phihppc Bosquet, who died
there on the 8th of January, 1829, bequeathed 2000 florins to the Benevolent Society of
the northern provinces of the Netherlands, on the condition that two fruit trees of full
growth should be planted over his grave, the fruit to be publicly sold by auction every
year ; in order to prove that the receptacles of the dead may be rendered useful and
beneficial to the living.
172. Public gardens and promenades. These are to be found in, or round, most of the
tOAvns in Holland and the Netherlands. One of the characteristic featm-es of modern
city improvements on the Continent is that of converting ramparts into gardens and
shady Avalks. The pubhc promenade at Brussels has been formed, or at least greatly
enlarged, by the removal of the old ramparts ; and by substituting in thefr place lines
of elm and lime trees, enclosing three distinct parallel roads, for foot passengers, carriages,
and horses. The public are thus supplied with delightful rides, walks, and drives,
of several miles in length, and eveiy where shaded by trees. The park at Brussels, mentioned
by Evelyn (§ 166.), has undergone great improvements, including the removal of
the clipped trees and the hornbeam hedges. (Gard. Mag., vol. ii. p. 87.) A beautiful
park, near the town of Rotterdam, well wooded and drained, affords a variety of pleasant
promenades. A t the extremity of this park, which is two miles long, stands the summer
residence of the Princes of Orange, called “ The Palace in the Wood.” The approach
to it is through a forest of oaks which are regarded with superstitious veneration, and
never submitted to the pinning hand of the woodman. (Elliott’s Travels, 1832, p. 10.)
The voorhout, or principal street, at Rotterdam, is also used as a promenade, and has
several rows of trees in the centre, with a caniage-way on each side, while walks in the
middle, covered with shells, arc assigned to pedestrians. (Ibid. p. 10.)
173. The improvement which a British gardener may derive from the study of the
landscape gardening of Holland and the Netherlands is not gi’cat. Perhaps it may be
limited to the employment of water in artificial forms, and to the use of hedges and
avenues as parts of pleasm'c-gi'ound scenery. So much is to be learned from the Dutch
in the other branches of gai-dening, that they may well be excused for not excelling in
one for which thefr country presents no particular facilities.
S u b s ec t . 2 . Dutch Gardening, in respect to Botanic Gardens and the Culture o f Flowers
and Plants o f Ornament.
174. The taste fo r flowers, so prevalent in Holland, is thought to have originated with
thefr industry early in the twelfth century ; the study of flowers being in some degree
necessary, as affording patterns for the oi-namental lace and linen manufactures.
Matthias de L ’Obel, botanist to James I. of England, states, in the preface to his Plantarum
Stiipium Historia, published in 1576, that the taste for plants existed among the
Flemings in his time in the greatest degree ; that they brought home plants from the
Levant and the two Indies ; that exotics were more cultivated by them than by any
other nation ; and that thefr gardens contained more rare plants than all the rest of
Europe besides, till, during the civil wars which desolated thefr country in the sixteenth
century, many of their finest gardens were abandoned or destroyed. L ’Obcl, in tlie
second part of his Adversaria, Lond., 1605, p. 514., gives a catalogue, fr-om Clusius, of
38 varieties of the anemone ; a striking proof of the florist’s art in the end of the sixteenth
century, about which period it is certain, from L ’Obel’s works, tliat many persons were
very assiduous in the cultivation of exotics. Deleuze observes, that Holland had at the
end of the seventeenth century a crowd of distinguished botanists ; and was then, as
during a century preceding, the country the most devoted to gardening. (Discours sur
VE ta t ancien et moderne de VAgriculture et de la Botanique dans les Pays Bas. Par Van
Hulthem, 1817 ; Ex tra it du Discours proyioncé, §-c. à Gand, par M . Cornelissen, 1817.)
175. The botanic garden o f Leyden vías begun in 1577. It was confided to Outger
Cluyt, 01- Augerius Clusius, who was succeeded by Petrus Paaw in 1589. Paaw published
Hortus Publicus Academice Lugduno-Batavoe, 8vo, 1601 : it has a plan of the garden.
In 1599 a greenhouse was constructed, and in 1633 the catalogue ofthe garden contained
1104 plants. At this time, the magistrates, the learned men, the wealthy citizens, were
occupied in facilitating the progress of botany and the introduction of new plants. A
ship never left the ports of Holland, Deleuze observes, the captain of which was not
desired to procure, wherever he put into harbour, seeds and plants. The most distinguished
citizens, Beveming, Fa^æl, Simon de Beaumont, and Rheede, filled their
gai-dens with foreign plants, at great expense, and had a pleasure in communicating
those plants to the garden of Leyden. This garden, in Boerhaave’s time, who, when
professor of botany there, neglected nothing to augment its riches and reputation, contained
(Index alter P lant, 1720) upwards of 6000 plants, species and varieties. Boerhaave
here exemplified a principle, which he laid down (Elementa Chemice) for adjusting the
slope of the glass of hothouses, so as to admit the greatest number of the sun’s fays,
according to the latitude of the place, &c. These principles were afterwards adopted
by Linnæus at Upsal, and by most of the directors of botanic gardens in Europe. It
was in this garden, about the beginning of the eighteenth century, that the Geraniàceoe
and Ficoideæ, and other ornamental exotics, were first introduced from the Cape. The
garden of Leyden was visited by Sir J . E. Smith in 1786 (Tour, &c., vol. i. p. 11.),
who observes, that it had been much enlarged within the last forty years, aud was then
about as large as the Chelsea garden. In 1814 it appeared rather neglected ; many
blanks existed in the general collection of hardy plants, and the hothouses were much
out of repair. I t contained, however, some curious old specimens of exotics, as Clusius’s
palm (Chamæ'rops hùmilis), twenty feet high, and upwards of 225 years old ; a n d a
curious ash, and various other trees and shrubs, planted by the same botanist. A new
garden, in addition to the old one, and a menagerie were in progress. In this new
garden, the walks are laid with a mixture of peat-moss and tanners’ bark reduced to
powder. A tourist, speaking of this garden as he found it iu 1830, says, “ it does credit
to all who belong to it, being kept in the highest possible order. The walks are beauti-
ftil, and without a pebble ; they are covered with a mixtm-e of peat earth and the spent
dust of tanners’ oak bark. The garden is tastefully laid out in clumps of shrubbery in
various forms, round which, on borders, are the various plants, named and numbered
according to the system of Jussieu. The whole extent is seven acres ; foui- of which
have been added only a few years ago, and laid out in good taste by the late Professor
Brugmans, as a gai-dcn for the reception of medicinal plants, and for the use of the
medical students. Among the hothouse plants we saw a date palm with fruit upon it,
which tree the gardener said had been there 200 years. I t may he questioned whether
the botanical garden of Leyden and its museum ai-e not superior to the Ja rd in des
Plantes and its museum in Paris. Taken altogether, we were of opinion that they had
a decided preference, though they wanted the attraction of living animals.” ( Tour through
South Holland, &c., p. 75.) Strangers are shown two palm trees said to be planted by
Boerhaave’s own hands. Leyden, Deleuze informs us, was, for more than fifty years,
tlie only city in Holland where there was a botanic garden ; but before the middle of the
seventeenth century, they were established in all the provinces. In 1836 some very old
trees were still standing in this garden ; and among them was a flowering ash (O'mus
europce''a), called the tree of Boerhaave, because it was grafted by that professor or by
his orders on the common ash (Fráxinus excélsior). A specimen of A'cer monspessu-
lànum and one of Lonicera alpígena were also standing in the spot where they were
planted in the presence of Linnæus, when the garden was arranged according to his
sexual system by him and Pi-ofessor A. Van Royen. The A 'cer is in a good state of preservation,
but the Lonicera is very much decayed, and its branches are kept together by
iron hoops. (Gard. Mag., vol. xii. p. 693.)
176. The botanic garden at Louvain is rich in stove plants. The great circular stove
conservatory has a remarkably fine effect, and contains many rare and interesting
species. The greenhouse consists principally of plants from the Cape.
177. The botanic gardens o f Amsterdam and Groningen merit particular notice. The
former was under the direction of the two Commelyns, Jo h n and Gaspar ; and was the
first garden in Europe that procured a specimen of the coffee tree, about 1690. A seedling
of this tree was sent from Amsterdam to Paris in 1714. Two seedlings fi-om this
plant were sent to Martinique in 1726, and these, the Abbé Raynal observes (H is t de
Commerce, tom. xvi. ch. 20.), produced all the coffee trees now cultivated in the French
colonies. This garden still contains many remarkable specimens of Cape and Jap an
plants. (NeilVs H o rt Tour, p. 218.) The gai-den of Groningen was begun by Henry
Munting, a zealous botanist and learned man, who had spent eight years travelling in
the different countries of Europe, establishing correspondences between botanists and
cultivators. He spent the greater part of his fortune upon his garden ; but, in 1641,