= ee 2 wee gy! 24 HISTORY OF GARDENING. Parr I,:

to study their culture. He returned, and in 1777 published a tract on them, with a plan of a pit for their reception; and in this way they are universally grown in Italy. Such, however, is the exhalation pro- duced in this dry climate from leayes so full of pores, as are those of the pine, and such the want of attention to supplying large pots and plenty of water, that the plants are generally of a pale sickly hue, and the fruit of very small size.

100. Of the Melon tribe, the variety in Italy is endless, of every degree of flavor, from the richness of the cantaleupe, to the cool, icy, sub-acid taste of the cétrouélle or water-melon. Too little care is bestowed in selecting good fruits for seeds, and in preventing hybridism from the promiscuous intercourse with sur- rounding sorts of cucumis; and, hence, seeds sent from Italy to this country are little to be depended on, and generally produce varieties inferior to those of British growth. There are a few sorts of cucumbers, and though there are a great number of gourds and pompions cultivated, the sorts, or conspicuous varieties of both, are less numerous than in this country. Italian cucumbers are never so succulent as those grown in our humid frames by dung-heat.;

The love-apple, egg-plant, and capsicum, are extensively cultivated near Rome and Naples for the kitchen; the fruit of the first attaining a larger size, and exhibiting the most grotesque forms. It is F singular, that in Sicily this fruit, when ripe, becomes sour, and so unfit for use, that the inhabitants are Dc supplied with it from Naples.

101. Want of demand for the fruits of the northern climates precludes their production. Were it other- wise, there can be no doubt means would soon be resorted to, to produce.them in as great perfection as we do their fruits here; all that is necessary, is to imitate our climate by abstracting or excluding heat, and

supplying moisture; but luxury in Italy has not yet arrived to the degree adequate to produce this effect,| he cal 02. Of culinary vegetables, the Italians began with those left them by the Romans, and they added the|:‘1 potatoe to their number as soon as, or before, wedid. They now possess all the sorts known in this country, rary ay i and use some plants as salads, as the chiccory, ox-eye daisy, ruccola, or rocket(Brassica eruca, L.), which“sahorn dist are little used here. The turnip and carrot tribe, and the cabbage, savoy, lettuce, and radish, thrive best oo

|

in the northern parts; but the potatoe grows well every where, and the Italian autumn is favorable to the: ant some i growth of the cauliflowers, and broccolis, which are found of large size at Rome, Florence, and Bologna, socked} the in the months of September and October; and very large at Milan, all the summer and autumn. The le. st f guminous tribe thrive every where; but in some places the entire pod of the kidney-bean is so dry and gardens 0 hard, as to prevent its use as a substitute for peas. Inshort, though the Italians have the advantage over‘ the rest of Europe in fruits, that good is greatly counterbalanced by the inferiority of their culinary vege. ents tables. Much to remedy the defect might be done by judicious irrigation, which in the south of Italy, and the con even in Lombardy, is so far necessary as to enter into the arrangement of every kitchen-garden. z blanching, and change of seed will effect much; but the value of good culinary vegetables is to the greater part of the wealthy Italians.

ings

Shading, not known

103. Horticulture has made little progress in Italy. It isnotin Italy, Simond observes, foes, 4

that horticulture is to be studied; though nowhere is more produced from the soil by‘ngs and Sl 5:.° 2[pf Ut

culture, manure, and water; but forcing or prolonging crops is unknown; eyery thing os generl -...< ci£(I 24! gy

1S sown at a certain season, and grows up, ripens, and perishes together. The variety is a France, 0 ) fom Frantey

not great; they have only three or four sorts of cabbage, not more of kidney-beans, and one of pea; the red and white beet, salsify, scorzonera, chervile, sorrel, onion, schallot,

Jerusalem artichoke, are in many parts unknown: but they have the cocomera, or water-

staterer they a

nie 5 Jur apprentices melon, everywhere. In Tuscany and Lombardy, it is raised on dung, and then transplanted nae, in the fields, and its sugary icy pulp forms the delight of the Italians during the whole ea month of August. Though they have walls round some gardens, they are ignorant of| ees

and egecily

+ th upto

:;;:; turing a winter

‘Supsect. 4. Ttalian Gardening, in respect to the planting of Timber-trees and Hedges. ane hn

yellow and cada

104. The self-sown forests of the Alps and Apennines are t the chief resources of the Italians for timber; and timber- trees are chiefly propagated for parks, public walks, and

lining the great roads. The vine is still, in many places,

trained on the poplar and elm(fig 7.); but in Tuscany

and Lombardy, where the culture is deemed superior, the

the mode of training trees on them.(Agr. Tose.)

aris OF Ue Parl Uist on cause the pena

exceptions t0 4

winter, in ls

tml

P of poplars or

common maple(4. campestre) and flowering ash(Ornus aaa ae°= WhO Lectures 10

europea) are preferred.(Sigismondi, Agr. Toscan.; Chateau- land cad gsm c t weld and garde veux, Lettres,&c. 1812.) The most common tree for sats

every other purpose is the narrow-leaved elm, which lines the road from Rome to Naples, for upwards of twenty miles

together. Near Milan, the Lombardy poplar is a great deal oem te used; but a late author, Gautieri(Dello Influsso del Boschi,&c. 1817,) argues in fayor| ae at of cutting down, rather than planting in the Milanese plains. The finest avenues and 5 ee rd public equestrian promenades in Italy are those around Milan and at Monza; the trees\ Tre psf are of various sorts, as the tulip-tree, platanus, lime, acacia, melia zederach, various oaks, Une gre chestnuts, beeches,&c.; they were planted in Beauharnois’ time; and such is the rapidity brn of vegetation in this climate, that already the tulip-trees produce blossoms, and in seven F years more the effect will be complete. The sorts are every where mixed, in order that st

the failure or defective growth of one species may have a chance of being compensated by the growth of that, or of those adjoining; or that if a malady were to attack one sort of tree, it might not lead to continuous defalcation. Most of those trees were planted by Villaresi, who, before the late political changes, had constantly under his direction not fewer than three thousand men for public and royal improvements.

105. The timber-trees of the native forests of Italy are chiefly oak, chestnut, and beech; the undergrowths are of numerous species, including the arbutus, ilex, and myrtle. This class of forests skirts the Alpine mountains, and covers, in many places, the Apennine hills. In higher regions the larch abounds, and in sheltered dells the silyer fir. The

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