s to-« 5 « ÎÎ
DUTCH GARDENS. 55
■ i®'’’ F '® / ““' ’“'® “rttolislied by Bonaparte ill 1797 was in liis dnv the
richest and best garden of the Netherlands. The area is about toree ^ 0” : ft ta d to
1819, a considerable collection of hardy herbaceous plants, an-anged after toe lin næ an
feS h e s ' “ ” ""I ‘to® “t o ®'“''*® distributed ill natui-al
S v ”® P to “ '®®«!“® ®ff®®‘ i an taiefly standaids ; and a ran^gc.of hothouses, m pai-t m tli glass roofse. xceIlnle tnhte rpolseaarsiuurme!,
ground the busts of eminent botanists were distributed with good effect ; and on the large
wbtoh to ° ‘to “ ““ ® ‘to donor, or the y e a rfn
7829 f o n n f t i ” ‘t o ™ ongmatcd, or introduced into the garden. Mj-. Hirers, to
m s r i 1 1 ®°"®®i“ 4 ™ ? garden meagre, the herbaceous borders rery bare, and
many of the labels without any plants belonging to them. He found, however, some fine
O to L r tP h 'f f P 7 - occidentalis var. cordàta. Magnòlia aunculàta,
S to fl 4 P Gynmocladus canadensis, Zà rix péndula, Eobíma riscosa. “ Sererai
bto7tos^rof em° P““ ® ° f ‘to g“rdens, were dedicated to
botonists of emmonce. Some venerable bays, from eight to nine feet high, to boxes and
i f 4 ■ 1 F ',f ,® r F ® ‘'®tollow; there were also some L myrtles and
4 L C ,®''“™ “ ‘o baU-like heads and naked stems.” In 1836, a now exhibition
room, capable of containing eight thousand plants, was erected, and as a café and concert
L w S ' “ “ ™ ’'® t o r t o r a of toe’society w e ri admitted, t L
f t o t o î L / 4 exceedmgly well attended. About toe same time M. Donkelaar was
S S7 1 L ’■ 7 Si^-toner in chief; and as lie was aUowod to sell for his own
pi out such plants as he could propagate, provided he retained specimens in tho garden
It IS not sm-prismg that he raised a great many new plants, particularly as a great many
seeds were sent to tt a garden by Dr. Sieboldt from China a7d Japan. “
181. A Í Mòta ex/uòUion o f firn; and rare plants in full bloom takes place twice every
t T T 1 f t o ™- ‘to “I'spi®®® of t t a Eoyal Botanical and Horticultiu-al Society.
The first of these is on the 6th of Eehruary ; the second on the 29th of Juno. There
meetings are styled toe festivals of Flora, or the Salxm d ’Hiver and the Sa lm d’Eté.
Amateurs as wch as gardeners send the rarest and most novel plants, as the representatives
of their gardens and pimten-es. Tlie réunions to which there exliibitions give rise
aie most splendid. National as well as foreign amatem-s, on such occasions, flock to
Ghent toe v,lk pnvilegee de Plme as it has been called, and from distant parts, F witness
a d splay r f the gayest and richest productions of Flora, not only the most beautiM
of toe kind, but perfectly imique in Europe. T t a festivals generally last three days,
aud are oountcnanced by the presence of toe highest public authorities: A t the conclu:
u / L f l v L f ‘" i ‘’‘to'- ‘« ton of approbation, is bestowed on the
plant which has been judged to he the finest or toe most rare ; and the names of all
such plants, with those of the owners, are inserted to the pubhc papers. These public
exlubitions have tended to extend, unprove, and give a stimulus to toe cultivation of
ornamental pi™ s, which are to be met with in and about Ghent in toe greatest perfection.
{Granvdds Travels, &c., vol. i. p. 40., 1828.)
182. F h n s t J flowers began to be objects o f commerce in Holland dhoat the beginning of
the sevenfeento centiuy. Double flowers were then first noticed, or brought into repute,
which may be sato to have created a new era in gardening, and certainly laid the foundation
m Holland of a considerable commerce ; toe more valuable, as ft is totahy independent
of polrticto or civil changes, and founded on the peculiar qualities of toe soil and
climate for growing bulbous roots. The forimania, as it is termed b y th e Fi-ench
existed m the highest tagree among the Dutch, from the beginning to the middle of thé
seventeenth century. Many noted instances are on record, of the extravagant sums given
for flowers possessing certam qualities agreed on by florists as desiderata, and established
about this time as canons of beauty. Hii-schfeld states, that in toe register of toe city of
A lkm ^ r, m ,‘t a year 1637, toey sold puhhcly, for the benefit of the Orphan Hospital,
120 tuhps, with their offsets, for 9000 florins ; and that one of those flowers, named thé
Viceroy, was sold for 4203 florms. When we consider toe value of money at this
remote period these sums appear enormous ; a florin at that time to Holland M d e rso n ’s
Hist, o f Com.) bemg the representative of nearly au English bushel of wheat.
7'íepraclráo/ífecoj»»n«ra-a;S«15«-oiocí-sa¡flo<ii-fcmhasl)eenthusRlvenatIenvth in the Vn-hmU bmgen Sc* g em n i under th e title o f " A Year’s Culture o fth e Hyacinth a t H a a S ■’ It b e S ? ¥ t t h
October, which is th e season for planting, and directs that the soil should be very sandy fine and Iteht
without any appearance of stones or gravel, and consequently should look as thóugh it had hem nasted
through a sieve. All kinds of loam or stiff soil, whlch®bind so closely togetoer S ® w L n drv t h f ¥ fa d
cdnnot separate th e particles as it does sand, must be avoided. No kind of red bluish or blackish soil
will produce perfect hyacinths ; but one is considered particularly good, which is li-^ht èrev and which
r e , ‘fitahtoen mould. ® p i s sani, Ih ic h is veré l l g S r o S f h rn S e
thin sand of th e Dutch downs, which is very fine and of a pale yellow
I layer of cowdung, one inch thick, five or six inches below
. cowdung must be quite pure, and
..a*. x...*wa*ai U1 < _ , , ,,
by degrees too rich, fresh sand must be added every y e a r; and if tlie beds
soil may be occasionally out,and its place supplied by fresh san
' * “ ' «PAiiôT»i-<3 of 1V1Û *hT\,vivihi d . . * - , becomes
ion of the
Aiiic, v e iy suiiuy, a iiu 1
S till lighter by the addition of the
T h e bed is th e n -------------’------- “•
.«•a* u u um u ii Kjt m e m i ll Oiiiiu 1.
-k ..a-k/eai. « meii prepared by putting into it a
the bulbs, and filling the space between with
not mixed with iiii-n--g-- t-n--e-- -s-p--a-c-e■ ’between with the prepared soil. This cowdung must be ouite
straw or any other substance. As th e soil, in consequence the annual duneiue
year ;the get too high, a portu
lasionallv taken nut:. .nnH it« nltioo cimolio.« la,. iirixi- .
F
wvJ. o “ » a* t'ali a-iaxil v i m e
With regard to tlie .space