30 HISTORY OF GARDENING. Parr I.

134, The garden of Groningen was begun by Henry Munting, a zealous botanist and learned man, had spent eight years travelling in the different countries of Europe, establishing correspondences betw botanists and cultivators. He spent the greatest part of his fortune upon his garden; but, in 1641, the states of Groningen, thinking so useful an establishment ought to be under the protection of the republic, purchased it, and appointed him professor. The catalogue of this garden, published in 1646, contains about 1500 plants, without comprehending more than 600 varicties; 100 of pinks, and 150 of tulips Henry Munting was succeeded by his son, Abraham, esteemed for his posthumous work, Phytographia Curiosa. Both these gardens areé still Kept up, but without that enthusiastic ardor which distinguished the citizens of Holland, when under more auspicious political circumstances than they are at the present time.

135. The Antwerp garden was formerly one of considerable repute in the Low Countries. In 1579a cata- logue of this garden was given by Dodoens(Florum et Coronarium arb. Hist.) which contained a consider- able number of plants, including a great variety of tulips and hyacinths.

136. The garden of Clifford, near Haerlem, of which Linneus published the history, was the most cele- brated in 1737. Clifford got all the new plants from England, and corresponded with the botanists of every country. Boerhaave gave him the plants of the Leyden garden; Siegesbeck sent him those of Russia; Haller, those of the Alps; and Burman, Roell, Gronovius, and Miller, sent him portions of the seeds which they received from different parts of the world. This garden had four magnificent hot-houses; one for the plants of the Levant and the south of Europe, one for Africa, one for India, and one for America.

137. The botanic garden of Utrecht was founded in 1630, and contains several palms and other exotics, brought there at that time. It is still kept in tolerable order, but displays no kind of scientific arrange. ment.(Hort. Tour, 244.)

138. The botanic garden of Ghent, established by Buonaparte in 1797, is, in the present day, the richest and best garden of the Netherlands.‘The area is about three acres: it has a considerable collection of hardy herbaceous plants, arranged after the Linnzan method; a pleasure-ground, in which the trees and shrubs are distributed in natural families, and so as to combine picturesque effect; an excellent rosary, chiefly trained in the tree manner; and a range of hot-houses, in part with glass roofs. In the pleasure- ground the busts of eminent botanists are distributed with good effect; and on the large boxes of palms, and other exotics, are marked the name of the donor, or the year in which the plant or tree was originated, or introduced to the garden. On the whole, it is more complete than any garden we have seen south of the Rhine, excepting that of Paris,

139. The royal botanic garden of Brussels has a good collection of orange-trees; but in all other respects is of a very inferior description.

140. The private botanic gardens of Van Schenen and Dr. Daaler, at Antwerp, are mentioned with ap- probation in the Horticultural Tour.(p. 121.)

141. The botanic garden of M.Parmentier, mayor of Enghicn, is not only the richest in the low countries, but, perhaps, in Europe. In 1817, Neill and his companions considered it as only exceeded in exotics by the collection at Kew, or at Messrs. Loddiges.

142, Festivals of Flora are held twice a year, at midsummer and midwinter, by the Agricultural Society of Ghent, and others. The plants are exhibited for three days.“ By a pleasing fiction, the plants alone are said to be competitors, and the successful plant is said to be crowned.”’ The reward is an honorary medal.(Hort. Tour,&e. p. 521.)

143. Florists’ flowers began to be objects of commerce in Holland, about the beginning of the seventeenth century. Double flowers were then first noticed, or brought into repute, which may be said to have created a new xra in gardening, and certainly laid the found- ation in Holland of a considerable commerce:— the more valuable, as it is totally inde- pendent of political or civil changes, and founded on the peculiar qualities of the soil and climate for growing bulbous roots. The florimania, as it is termed by the French, ex- isted in the highest degree among the Dutch, from the beginning to the middle of the seventeenth century. Many noted instances are on record, of the extravagant sums given for flowers possessing certain qualities agreed on by florists as desiderata, and established about this time as canons of beauty. Hirschfield states, that in the register of the city of Alkmaar, in the year 1637, they sold publicly, for the benefit of the Orphan Hospital, 120 tulips, with their offsets, for 9000 florins; and that one of those flowers, named the Viceroy, was sold for 4203 florins. When we consider the value of money at this remote period, these sums appear enormous, a florin at that time in Holland(Anderson’s His~ tory of Commerce) being the representative of nearly an English bushel of wheat.

144. The commercial flower-gardens or bloemesteries of Haerlem have iong been the most

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celebrated for bulbous-rooted flowers. The name of Van Eden has been noted for upwards of a century; and there are now four gardens occupied by different members of this family, celebrated florists. That of Voorhelm is of equal antiquity and celebrity. Of the gardens of both families, and of several others, accounts will be found in the Horti- cultural Tour. The most extensive and best managed is said to be that of Schneevoght, lately a partner with Voorhelm.

145. The florimanists, Bose observes, were much more numerous towards the middle of the last century than at this moment(1809).“* One does not now hear of twenty thousand franes being given for a tulip; of a florist depriving himself of his food, in order to increase the number and variety of his anemonies, or passing entire days in admiring the colours of a ranunculus, the grandeuy of a hyacinth, or trembling, lest the breath of an over-curious admirer should hurt the bloom of an auricula.”’ The general price of choice bulbs now, it is observed in the Horticultural Tour, varies from three to ten guilders(a guild.— 1s. 8d.); a few kinds are valued at from ten to twenty euilders; and the most select, new, and consequently rare, varieties, seldom fetch more than from twenty to 50 guilders. Among the most precious at this time are, the Universal Con- queror, Pompe Funébre, and Charbonier Noir, with yellow grounds; Louis XVI. and Toilette Supérieure, with white grounds, and the price of them is one hundred guilders

(£8 2s. 6d.) a bulb.(Hort. Tour. p. 195.)

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