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exchange may be made for mutual advantage. For this pui-pose, it seems desirable,
that every thriving establishment should print or prepare a catalogue once a year, or
once every two or three years. By printing only the botanic names, each sheet would
contain nearly four thousand names, and consequently three sheets, all the plants, native
or introduced into Britain. This might be produced stitched together, all expenses
included, for a trifle ; and, as the present law respecting letters stands, might be sent
through the post. Thus a cheap communication between British botanic gardens
might be formed, and through our foreign ambassadors, these catalogues might be distributed
all over the world.
6410. A catalogue may be formed o f figures, where it is not convenient to fonn one of
printed names. Thus the possessed or desired plants might be indicated by putting down
the numbers placed against the names of the plants in some generally circulated botanical
catalogue. Our Hortus Britannicus is numbered in such a way as to render communication
between botanists, however remotely situated, perfectly facile.
6411. The gardens o f the horticultural societies. The plan of the garden of the London
Horticultural Society ought to be the best, but it appears to us most defective in
general arrangement. There is a want of grandeur and unity of effect as a whole, and
of connection and convenience in the parts. One obvious error, that must strike every
one, is, the forming the arboretum in a large rectilinear clump ; and another, is scattering
the hothouses and other buildings here and there over the garden. There should, in our
opinion, have been three grand parts : a centre for all the buildings of every description,
with the exception of entrance-lodges and resting-seats, or shelters, &c. ; a circumference,
displaying tlie arboretum, fruticctum, and ornamental flowers ; and the intermediate
space laid out as culinary, dessert, or pomological, floricultural, experimental, naturalisation,
and_ nursery gardens. The hothouses requisite for these different departments
might easily have been aiTanged so as to be included in each of them, and yet foi-ming
with the other buildings a whole or connected chain round the central area, and these
might have been all heated from the same steam or hot-water appai-atus, and the sheds
and other parts and buildings lighted, if desired, by gas.
C h a p . III.
Professional Police and Puhlic Laws relative to Gardeners and Gardening.
6412. By professional police, we mean those associations which gardeners have formed
at different times, for mutual benefit or instruction, or the improvement of their ai-t; hj-
public laws, those of the legislature.
6413. Afratei-nity of gardeners, we have already remarked, has long existed in Germany as regularly
^ g an ised as thty of freemasonry. A fraternity also exists in i/a n c e , but less extensive and systematic.
Their principal lodge is a t Versailles ; the confrères de St. Fiacre hems there,'., «..
5 Neill observes, to
France, what ” Adam’s lodge of Aberdeen is to Scotland.”
■ r v j - ---<?--------- ...................................— There are also a few similar fraternities in
this country, who hold meetings, and have secret signs and other rites nearly similar to those of masonry;
but these societies have no systematic connection like those of Germany. In masonry they have un-
doubtedly originated ; but how, when, and where, and for what object, in the flrst instance, though we
have corresponded with competent persons in all parts of the kingdom, we have been unable to ascertain.
6414. The nhip.st anrdpners' Indapi spnm tn ' ro . . .
^ r s 111 their a rt ; for th e assistance of brethren in distress ; and for th e benefit of travelling members.
The first object is attained both by secret instructions, and also by competitory exhibitions of garden
productions, as flowers and fruits ; th e second, by annual subscriptions, from which a fund is formed,
managed by a committee of the society ; and the third, by signs and pass-words, as in masonry. They
have a general meeting, a formal procession with symbols and flowers, and a feast, once a year. There
were formerly a number of gardeners’ lodges in Scotiand, and there are still a few besides those of Aber-
IL chiefly confined to the counties of Aberdeen, Forfar, and p a rt of those adjoming.
6U5. T/ie'principal Scotch gardeners’ lodge, though it has no connection with th e others, like the
metropolitan masons lodge, is th e Caledonian lodge of Edinburgh, founded about the end of the last
century ; its object is the same as th a t of the Aberdeen lodge ; b u t it has no shows of flowers or other
productions. Their meetings are respectable, their processions pompous, and their funds con-
6416. There are very few gardeners'lodges in England ; the only one of which we have been able to
obtain any distinct account is “ Adam’s Lodge of London,” founded June 4. 1781, of which the rules
and orders have been published. This lodge is described in the Rules, See., as a “ fraternity or commu-
mty for improving the a rt of gardening ; to establish a fund for th e mutual support and relief of each
other in the time of sickness, lameness, or distress ; and also to ascertain th e characters and abilities of
such gardeners who shall belong to, or may be recommended by, this society, to obviate th e difficulty, so
commonly complained of by the nobility, gentry, and others, of obtaining skilful and experienced persons
to undertake th e employment.” In 1823, when the second edition of this Encyclopædia was prepared, it
consisted of about one hundred and fifty members, and it is now (in 1849) extinct.
6417. Gardeners’ charter. About the middle of the last century, Lee, Gordon, Russel, and Malcolm,
all Scotch gardeners, commenced th e ir nurseries a t Hammersmith, Mile-end, Lewisham and Kensine-
rertA ¡Fre*'' excited the jealousy of the established commercial-gardeners, who, between 1760 and
1770, held several meetings, and entered into resolutions not to employ young men from the north.
These resolutions were not long adhered to ; but a tract, entitled Adam armed, published by this association
a t the time, shows the extent of what th ty intended. From this trac t it appears, ........... .................................. .............. .................. appeal . that James I.
had granted a charter to certain persons inhabiting within London and six miles of it, who were capable
to educate and instruct young men in the art of gardening. This charter was granted in the third year
of this king’s reign, and renewed in th e fourte enth; but, in the trac t alluded to, it is stated never to have
been put in force, and not to be sufficiently extensive; and therefore it is propost
granted, to extend over the whole kingdom, to prevent mere labourers and other unqualified persons
from assuming the profession of gardeners, and thereby doing “ great injury to the nobility’s and gentry’s
gardens and plantations,” as well as to proprietors who let ground to such as “ undertake to furnish the
market with eatables.” Only a certain number of gardeners were to be licensed to take apprentices, and
of these the number was to be limited, &c. This attempt a t monopoly of skill does not appear to have
met with serious attention, and all that resulted from the association, as far as we learnt in 1824 (from
a gardener, Duncan, then upwards of 90 years of a g e \ was th e partial exclusion, for a year or two, of
young Scotsmen, from a few o fth e nurseries and gentlemen’s gardens near town.
6418. The origin o f florists’ societies we have not been able to discover. It is more than probable that
meetings for th e display of fine flowers and th e estimation of their merits were first held a t Norwich,
where, as Sir J . E . Smith informs us {Supp. Encyc. Brit. a rt. Bot. 336.), a love of flowers, and a great
degree of skill in their culture, had been introduced into that city, with its worsted manufactures, about
ti.1h e m ii-dI dJ l1 eOT ootQf Athl. eot sixte en...tAht . rcoeron„tAu..r„y.. . AAat arollll reoivrroeTnlAtrso , AthlroeQrrteQ lw.TQerrtQe fflrltokrrtilscAtsc’’ ffAeOaCsAtsc Vhl eilllldl AtVhlret.rrteia Cson QeOarrtllyir rat C
1637 ; a play, called Rhodon and Iris, being extant, which was acted before the company in that year.
{L in n . Trans., vol. ii. p. 226.) T h e n ex t florists’ meetings, it is probable, sprang up about London;
and Nathaniel Rench, of Fulham, is said {Faulkner’s Historical Account of Fulham) to have been the
first who established them, probably about the end of the seventeenth century. According to the late
Mr. Davey, florist, King’s Road, whose father was also an eminent florist, and lived to be upwards of 90
years of age, the florists’ feasts and meetings were at th e ir greatest height about London between 1740
and 1770. They were then attended by many noblemen and gentlemen, as the horticultural societies are
at present. They declined towards the end of the last century, but have since revived, and are at present
rapidly on th e increase. The florists’ meetings, and those of the gooseberry-growers in Lancashire and
th e adjoining counties, are also very numerous. When they were first adopted in th at part of England
is not exactly known. From the best accounts we have been able to collect, they were in vogue there
in 1760, and are recollected so far back as 1740. Some florists’ societies existed in Edinburgh during the
la tte r end of the last c e n tu ry ; and on one of these the Caledonian Horticultural Society was founded.
The principal florists’ societies in Scotland are a t Paisley.
6419. The principal modern societies fo r the encouragement of gardening axe the London and Caledonian
Horticultural Societies and the Royal Botanic Society; but there is one, if not more, in almost
every county. The tendency of these societies is to diffuse generally a taste for gardening, which may
truly be called one of th e most agreeable and humanising of pursuits. They also assist in spreading
improved varieties of culinary vegetables and fruits, and in bringing into general cultivation many of the
beautiful new hardy trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, which have been lately introduced from North
and South America, Nepal, and other parts of the world. There is yet another good which results from
the meetings of these societies; and th a t is, the bringing into personal communication many individuals,
gardeners and others, who, but for assemblages of this sort, might have remained for ever unknown to
one another. In general, whatever has a tendency to bring men together, so as to enable them to think
and act in masses, is favourable to human improvement. The farmer confined to his farm, and the
gardener within the walls of his garden, could never have any influence on society, either in the way of
disseminating agricultural or horticultural knowledge, or improvements; or in ameliorating the condition
or manners of the two classes ; but let them meet together two or three times a year, and communicate
their respective experience, and decided improvement must be th e result. Prejudice and self-conceit,
two of the most inveterate foes to human advancement, are thus swept away; and every man being
enabled to profit by the experiments of others, a great step is made not only in particular branches of
science, but in the general progress of civilisation.
and floriculture ; the general laws being quite sufficient for their protection. Robbing of orchards or
gardens of fruit growing therein is punishable criminally by whipping, small fines, imprisonment, and
satisfaction to the parties wronged, according to the nature of the offence. (43 Eliz. c. 7.)
6421. There are a number of acts relative to arboriculture, and especially against the cutting down of
young trees, (See Tomlin's Law Diet., vol. ii. a rt. Timber.)
BOOK IL
FUTURE PROGRESS OF GARDENING IN BRITAIN.
6422. The improvement o f gardening, like that of every art or commodity, necessarily
depends on demand and production. These causes operate reciprocally ou each other : a
nicety of taste, iu the purchase of vegetables and fruits exposed in public mark^s, will
occasion articles of belter quality to be brought to such markets; and the facility of
puvcliasing articles of a superior quality in them, by improving and rendering more
fastidious the taste of the purchaser, will insure the continuance of the production
of such articles. In like manner, if those who have private gardens were a little more
difficult to please in selecting a gardener, and in the quality ofthe produce sent to table,
the consequence would be, an improvement in that produce, and in the degi-oe of knowledge
thought necessary for gardeners. More scientific gardeners would sui-prise and
delight, by their superior fruits and flowers, and by the greater order, beauty, and high
keeping of their gardens; and the habits of both parties accommodating themrelves to
this improved state of things would be the ground on which to rely for its continuance.
In this view of the subject, the future progress of gai-dening depends on two causes;
the improvement of the taste of the patrons of gai-dening, and the improvement of the
science and ai-t of practical gardeners.