NATURE AND ART IN GARDENING. 61 ped hedges, cones, and labyrinths, or such caprices, that wealth may successfully employ itself in gardening; but in collecting and naturalizing the kindred productions of various countries and climates, and bringing together, as it were, into one family circle, the scattered members of the same speciesin beholding their blended hues, and inhaling their mingled fragrance. In this respect, modern horticulture has a decided advantage over that of antiquity. No one can be a skillful horticulturist, that is unacquainted with botany and other kindred sciences, all of which were unknown to the ancients. Their efforts were practical and experimental; those of the moderns are founded on principle, and directed by a knowledge of the properties and affinities of plants. The modern horticulturist does not merely regard the ornamental part of gardening, which is very much a matter of taste and observation-but without neglecting that, he has higher objects. He calls botany and chemistry to his aid. By means of the former he is able to ascertain the particular family to which every plant belongs, to know its peculiar properties and the purposes for which nature has designed it-whether for ornament or use-whether esculent or otherwise-whether nutritions or poisonous. The latter, by its practical developments, informs him of the best means of manuring his grounds and increasing their productiveness; of experimenting on his soil and finding out its peculiar nature, and employing it for that cultivation for which it is best adapted; what soils furnish the best aliment for particular plants, and the constitution of those plants, as determined by the nature of their roots, which are various-some being fibrous, others bulbous or tube-rose, others hard and woody. Professor Liebig, in his work on the application of organic chemistry to agriculture, has done much to elevate the character of horticulture; for all that relates to the nutrition of vegetables, and the action of manure upon them, is equally important to both. In addition to these, entomology may be enlisted to give effect to his labors. It will acquaint him with the nature of those insects which are so great an enemy to the gardenfrom the grub and cut-worm that destroy in the dark, to those that are winged, and attack the tallest trees-and direct his attention to the best means of destroying them, or of lessening their depredations. On this subject, there is yet a wide range of observation and experiment to stimulate the exertions of the horticulturist. The ravages of msects have at all times been the subject of complaint with gardeners; and all who have either labored or written have united their regrets. Whilst we are improving our gardens by the importation of foreign plants and shrubs, and habituating them to our cli mate and cultivation, we run the risk of introducing destructive insects, hitherto unknown. Some of the most fatal of these insects are exotics: one, peculiar to the pear tree, is said to be of foreign importation, as it was never observed in the United States until the introduction of fruit trees became comInon. And we all remember with mournful experience, the blighting effects of that little white insect, so fatal to our orange trees, which a few years ago visited our gardens, carrying with them a desolation as deadly as that which follows the march of the locust. Sir William Temple, in his essay on gardening, speaks of a disease known amongst orange trees, which he pronounces a most pestilent one. He describes it as proceeding from an insect which fastens on the bark of the tree, dark brown and figured like a shield. He quotes Pausanias as saying that they were much noticed in Greece. He is of opinion that they proceed from the roots; but those to which we allude, cover and encrust the tree so entirely, not excepting even the smallest twigs or shoots, as to induce the belief that they are not generated in the root, but are winged. The excessive cold of the winter of 1837, which hastened, or rather completed, the destruction of our orange trees, still leaves us in doubt whether this disease was a transient or permanent one. We have not heard of their re-appearance. What are the results of the scientific character which horticulture has of late years acquired (and here let me observe that the very term, "horticulture" has grown into use from the more literal character it has assumed in modern times)? Gardening" has been the only word always used by the best English writers, Swift, Addison, Cowley in his beautiful poem addressed to Mr. Evelyn, Sir William Temple, Horace Walpole, and Cowper. For, in their day, it was altogether an art, practical, and based on experience, directed by taste, rather than science, and considered the appendage of wealth, and used for the ornament of villas and palaces. But a garden has now become a field of scientific research, displaying a knowledge of botany, chemistry, and vegetable physiology, without any restraint or limitation on the exercise of taste. Those sciences entering into, and directing its employments, have elevated both its character and its name. They seem to have established a higher class, that requires a distinguishing name; whilst the mere plodding gardener is left to his humble, though useful occupation, of supplying our tables with the best fruit, and vegetables, and herbs, adding the experience of one year to the labors of another. The horticulturist is employed in the more liberal and enlarged sphere of the pursuit, aiming at higher objects-to soften the asperities of climate-to subdue the stubbornness of soils-to obliterate the line between barrenness and fertility-in a word, to bring the whole vegetable kingdom under subjection to the uniform government of science. He knows that in the ordinary course of nature, everything proceeds from established and regular principles-that there are no phenomena that may not be accounted for-no secret processes that may not be discovered-and no operations which may not be satifactorily explained. But to return. One of the results, we might say one of the triumphs, of modern horticulture, is the introduction and naturalization, even the domestication, of foreign plants and flowers, greatly diversifying the beauty of our gardens, and enlarging the enjoyments of taste. Our vegetable population is thus greatly increased, and, like that of our municipal and political communities, is fast rivaling the number of natives. The extension of commerce, and the growing civilization of the world, have very much contributed to this. We may all remember when our gardens produced a comparative meagre display-when our roses were few, and those the descendants of the Huguenot* stock, and our flower-beds confined to anemonies and stock gilly flowers, pinks, jonquils, and a few blue hyacinths, (other colors being very rarely seen,) as prescribed by the old-fashioned vocabulary. Whereas they now exhibit a splendid array of flowers and shrubs, contributed by every part of the globe-roses from China and Bengal; dahlias from Mexico; jessamines from Arabia; verbenas and astremerias from South America; the gardenia florida, ixia sparaxis, and goladiolus from the Cape of Good Hope; mignonette from Egypt; the ice-plant (mysembryanthemum crysfallinum) from Athens; the various japonicas, including the lornicera, the Italian honeysuckle; the lagerstremia from China, with its varieties, and that splendid shrub the pittosporum, also from China. These, with many other exotics, are now familiar to us, and may be fairly enrolled in the American Flora. But all is not yet accomplished. New fields are to be explored and their beauties culled. It is said that there are dispersed on the surface of the globe forty thousand distinct species of plants bearing flowers, and this is thought but a moderate estimate. Of these there are thirteen thousand flowering plants in the intertropical parts of America, whilst Europe, which lies wholly within the temperate zone, contains seven thousand. It is to be hoped that the recent polit *Several beautiful roses are found in those parts of the country where the Huguenots settled, "to tell where a garden had been." ical changes which have taken place in China, enlarging its trade with other nations, and particularly with the United States, will give us still further insight into its botanical treasures, and add to what we already possess of them. Amongst the foreign contributions by which our gardens have been enriched, is the rose, with its splendid varieties. But this paragon of flowers claims at least the tribute of a separate paragraph. It is asserted by naturalists, that all the diversities of form, color, size, and fragrance, which now distinguish the rose, have proceeded from care and cultivation, there being but one native original. If this be true, what elements of beauty must there have been in that original, to develop themselves so luxuriantly and profusely! How like its prototype of Eden, in whom all that was "lovely-fair" was summed up, "in her contained." Transplanted from the wilderness, where its sweetness was wasted, it has become the pride and ornament of man's habitation; it has spread its progeny over every clime, and is the inseparable companion of civilization and refinement. The harbinger of spring, and emblem of youth "Celestial rosy-red-love's proper hue;" it has received the homage of the poet in every age. The offerings of taste and genius, of beauty and innocence, have diffused an atmosphere of joy around it, and made it the object of universal but harmless idolatry. Pliny places the rose at the head of flowers, investing it, as it were, with royal precedence. "Lilium rose nobilitate proximum est." He mentions many varieties in the gardens of Rome, the names of which show that several had been introduced from abroad. Some of these varieties are beautifully alluded to by the poet Martial, in one of his epigrams addressed to a chaplet of roses: "Seu tu Paestinis genita es, seu Tiburis arvis: No doubt the celebrated rose of Pæstun, which always had the word "bifera" prefixed to it, is to be found among the varieties that adorn our own gardens, many of them having that peculiarity. Indeed our gardens, which were formerly sterile in this branch of cultivation, now exhibit the fruits of a most liberal taste. Of the white rose there were but two varieties, the common white and the musk; of the red, the centifolia or common May rose, the damask, the cabbage rose, and a few other varieties, were the only ornaments of the rosarium: whereas now the enterprise of the American horticulturist has overspread our country with one blush of CONSUMPTION OF COTTON IN EUROPE. 65 beauty, almost realizing the visionary hope before expressed. That an enlightened interest is awakened throughout the United States on the subject of horticulture, is not only evident from the facts above stated, but from the active efforts of societies established for its encouragement. By these, information is sought, experiments encouraged, improvements rewarded, papers illustrating its various scientific relations and practical developments read and published, and an intercommunication made on the result of individual effort; thus elevating the pursuit, imparting to it a more liberal character, and multiplying and enhancing the conscious enjoyments of him that practises it. And where is there a happier man than the horticulturist? Nature is his constant companion. His daily study is to improve his acquaintance with her, and to cultivate that intercourse whose delights are exhaustless. The alternate succession of expectation and reality, of labor and repose, of retirement and society, fill up the day and the year. He labors to brighten every hue in the mantle of beauty which she has spread over the fields, and to make her bounties even more worthy of gratitude. In investigating the phenomena of vegetable life, and exhibiting in his labors and improvements those results which minister to the enjoyments of taste, and to the more substantial comforts of man, he entitles himself, without any ambition. for the distinction, to be called a benefactor of his race. are his pursuits without moral benefit to himself. Decay and reproduction are constantly before him as emblematic moni Nor He is the steward of mysteries which no human science can unfold, and which, in the humblest flower of the valley, are daily declaring the unfathomable wisdom of the great Author of creation. The seeds. that decay and germinate, have undergone the same alternate process as when they fell from the hand of him who planted the first garden. Hence he learns that it is the right and the privilege of the virtuous man who has been employed through life in cultivating its charities, to enjoy, in their richest display, the fruits of his labors, and to know that the seed that he reaps is to spring up and flourish after him. ART. VI.-CONSUMPTION OF COTTON IN EUROPE. UNDER an appropriation from Congress it is known that John Claiborne, Esq., of Louisiana, recently visited Europe, and prepared a report upon its consumption of cotton, which has been printed. The report is now on the table before us, being a pamphlet of about one hundred pages, including a |