tering in connexion with the name. It will scarcely fail to strike any mind which has been accustomed to turn its attention to scriptural analogies and contrasts, that as it was in a garden that Adam spent his days of innocence and happiness, so it was in a garden that He who has been emphatically called the Second Adam, experienced the mysterious and amazing agony which formed the prelude to his vicarious sufferings.

In profane history, we meet with frequent mention of gardens, as existing in very early ages, often, however, mixed up with fable, and seldom accompanied with any circumstantial account which can throw light on the taste of the ancients, or the kinds of produce which they cultivated. The hanging gardens of Babylon form some exception to this remark; but, while they convey to us an idea of expensive magnificence and extravagant luxury, the details are far too vague to satisfy the curiosity of a horticulturalist, as to those matters in which he feels the greatest interest. Nearly the same thing may be observed of the Persians. They are said to have been addicted to gardening from a very early period; but we know nothing of their arts of cultivation, and we hear from historians only of those gardens which were erected to gratify the profuse taste of monarchs, or to contribute to their oriental splendour.

From Theophrastus and Aristophanes, we learn that the Greeks took pleasure in horticultural pursuits; but they only tell us, in general terms, of the cultivation of flowers, of which that elegant people were exceedingly fond. They strewed them at their convivial meetings, and religious ceremonies; they wore them in garlands and crowns; and they attached to them mythological types and meanings which gave a peculiar and superstitious interest to their culture, and to the manner in which they were employed.

From the Greeks, the Romans borrowed many of their habits and tastes, with considerable modifications however, consequent on their more warlike propensities.

Their love of gardening may probably be traced to their admiration of the people whom they acknowledged to be their masters in the arts and refinements of civilized society. The productions which they cultivated, however, were perhaps more numerous than those which adorned the gardens of the inhabitants of Greece, because the range of their conquests was more extensive; and this active and observant people never failed to appropriate to themselves whatever was useful in the practices or possessions of the countries they over-ran; while, with a generosity, which in some degree compensated for their selfishness, they were eager to communicate to the vanquished the knowledge and the arts of civilized life, which they had themselves acquired. Although we have little specific information on the subject, it may well be believed that they carried with them, wherever they made a permanent settlement, an acquaintance with the useful labours of the gardener.

In China, it is probable that horticulture was early cultivated, and the inveterate habits of that singular people render it likely that their present modes of garden culture have been handed down from a remote antiquity. The missionary Jesuits Du Halde and La Comte, who resided a number of years in China, mention in terms of commendation the manner in which gardens are managed in that country, particularly as relates to the raising of culinary vegetables; and it is even said that the Chinese are in possession of some esculents peculiar to themselves. This latter assertion, however, is not very probable, as we possess several valuable additions to our flower-gardens, derived from that quarter; and, among the rest, some beautiful varieties of the Camellia, Pœonia, and Rose; and there seems no reason why, if useful vegetables, unknown in Europe, existed among them, these productions should not also have found their way beyond the bounds of the celestial empire.

In turning to the state of European horticulture, in modern times, we shall find that the changes which have

taken place in society since the classic ages, have not been less remarkable in this than in other arts. Among the natives of modern Greece and Italy, there are few remains of the habits of the ancient inhabitants. They possess gardens, indeed, but they seem to take little interest in their cultivation. The same vegetable productions which we possess, are to be found in the Italian states; but, while the gardens of the peasants are only scantily supplied with gourds and Indian corn, the arts of horticulture are but languidly pursued even by the wealthy; and it is only in the gardens attached to religious houses, that we see any remains of the taste of former times. In Russia, the practice of gardening was first introduced, along with many other improvements, by Peter the Great; but it does not seem to have taken deep root, and is indeed almost exclusively confined to the higher classes. * In the adjoining kingdoms of Poland and Prussia, the peasantry have not much more taste for gardening than their less civilized neighbours. Cabbages and potatoes are almost the only vegetables which their little plots produce; but the case is different with their superiors, who raise garden productions in great variety and abundance.

France, particularly in its northern provinces, and the neighbourhood of the metropolis, is distinguished by the attention which is frequently paid to the neatness of the garden grounds, and the success with which the art is cultivated. But, above all the continental nations, the palm must undoubtedly be assigned to the Dutch, and the inhabitants of the Netherlands. Throughout these countries, as has been justly said by Sir William Temple, gardening has been the common favourite of public and private men,— ‚—a pleasure of the greatest, and a care of the meanest,-and indeed an employment and a possession for which no man there is too high or too low."

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* "Horticulture has attained to a high degree of perfection in Russia, among its princes and nobles; and it is a curious fact, that more pine-apples are grown in the immediate vicinity of St Petersburgh, than in all the other countries of continental Europe."-Library of Entertaining Knowledge. - Work on Vegetable Substances, p. 206.

The early intercourse of Spain with the New World, created a taste in that country for horticultural pursuits, and has been the means of diffusing over Europe many useful plants, from Mexico, Chili, and Peru. In Mexico, indeed, the natives were remarkable for the ingenuity of their garden cultivation; and their chinampas, or floating gardens,* must be considered as one of the greatest curiosities of art ever produced by a semi-barbarous people.

But nowhere, with the exception perhaps of the Low Countries, is the art of horticulture carried on, among all ranks, with so much spirit and success as in Great Britain. The lowest peasant delights in the labours of his garden; and even the inhabitants of our towns find enjoyment from the cultivation of but a few yards perhaps of soil, which their circumscribed boundaries have spared to them. A taste for shrubs and flowers is universal, especially in the southern districts of England. "The laborious journeyman mechanic," says Mr Loudon, "whose residence in large cities is often in the air, rather than on the earth, decorates his garret window with a garden of pots. The debtor, deprived of personal liberty, and the pauper in the workhouse, divested of all property in external things, and without any fixed object on which to place their affections, sometimes resort to this symbol of territorial appropriation and enjoyment;-so natural it is for all to fancy they have an inherent right in the soil, and so necessary to happiness to exercise the affections, by having some object on which to place them.”+

* Humboldt conjectures that the first idea of these floating gardens may have been suggested by nature herself, seeing that," on the marshy banks of the lakes of Xochimilco and Chalco, the agitated waters, in the time of the great floods, carry away pieces of earth, covered with herbs, and bound together with roots The first Chinampas were mostly fragments of ground, artificially bound together, and cultivated." Following up this suggestion, it would not be difficult, by means of wicker-work, formed with marine plants, and a substratum of bushes, combined with tenacious earth or clay, to construct similar gardens of adequate dimensions. Upon these was placed fine black mould, sufficiently deep for the subsistence of the plants which it was desired to raise. The form usually given to these Chinampas was quadrangular, and their size varied from 150 to 300 feet in length, with a breadth of from 20 to 70 feet."-Vegetable Substances used for food, p. 207. † Loudon's Encyclopedia of Gardening, p. 95.

SECOND WEEK-FRIDAY.

HORTICULTURE. THE TURNIP.

AMONG the plants which are cultivated in the garden, as well as in the field, I have elsewhere* described two varieties of the leguminous tribe, the pea and the bean. There is another species of esculent vegetable, some varieties of which are raised by the agriculturist, and others by the gardener. I allude to the turnip, with which I shall begin my selection of horticultural produce.

The native country of this useful bulb has not been distinctly ascertained. Both in France and England, plants of the same species are found in a wild state; but, till it be cultivated, it is of little value; and experiments have proved that, in this climate, the indigenous plant cannot, by any mode of culture, be so improved as to be rendered useful. There hangs a mystery, therefore, over the origin of this, as well as several other of our useful cultivated vegetables.

The turnip was familiar to the Romans, and cultivated by them with great care and success. Pliny and Columella agree in considering this esculent as next to corn in utility; and the latter recommends the extended cultivation of it, both as the food of human beings and of cattle. It is supposed that the Roman method of cultivation must have been superior to that of the moderns, since Pliny relates that some single bulbs weighed as much as forty pounds, a weight double of that obtained by the most skilful modern agriculturist. If this statement can be relied on, it seems to prove something more than mere agricultural skill; for the climate of Italy at present is too warm and dry to be favourable to the growth of this species of produce; and hence it may be * "Spring," p. 333–7.