FINE SCARLET GERANIUMS. HOVEY & Co. Offer for sale the following very fine varieties of Scarlet Geraniums, some of which are exceedingly rare and beautiful. They have been selected from the most showy kinds in English collections, and all of them beautiful for turning out into the border, or planting in circles upon the lawn, where, from the brilliancy of their flowers, they form the showiest objects of the garden. TOM THUMB is a most remarkable variety, attaining only to the height of 6 or 8 inches, with small foliage, but with fine large clusters of brilliant scarlet flowers, which rise on strong stems, high above the leaves. Only a few plants of this variety are for sale. Plants packed carefully, for safe transportation to all parts of the country. CHOICE VARIETIES OF FRUIT, BY S. MOULSON, AT THE OLD ROCHESTER NURSERY. 20,000 trees of the celebrated Northern Spy Apple, all of which are rootgrafted those seven to eight feet high, fifty cents each. Medium sizes, thirty-seven and a half cents; small ones at less. A discount will be allowed to purchasers of large quantities, for the purpose of selling again. This highly desirable, long-keeping fruit, having been introduced by this establishment at an early period, the proprietor is enabled to offer larger trees than are usually found, and having been grown from scions of the original bearing trees in this vicinity, parties ordering may be sure of their genuineness. Also, a general assortment of Apple, Pear, Quince, Plum, Cherry, Peach, Apricot, Nectarine, Currant, Gooseberry, Raspberry, Strawberry, and Ornamental Trees and Shrubs, which will be properly packed, when desired, for any portion of the United States, Canada, or Europe. Catalogues gratis, to post-paid applicants. Orders, not accompanied with remittance, must contain reference, which may be to parties residing at Rochester, Boston, New York, or Philadelphia. Also at Montreal, Kingston, Cobourg, Toronto, or Hamilton. March 1, 1847. S. MOULSON, Office 36 Front-street, Rochester, N. Y. GRAPE VINES FOR GRAPERIES. HOVEY & CO. OFFER FOR SALE 1000 GRAPE VINES IN POTS, Raised from eyes, from 2 feet to 4 feet high, and sufficiently strong for planting out the ensuing spring, suitable for Graperies; Greenhouses, &c., comprising the following varieties, true to name: some of them new, rare and valuable. Prices 75 cents each, or $6 per dozen, except those marked (*), which are $1 each. 30 other new varieties are under cultivation and will be offered for sale in the fall of 1847. Plants carefully packed for safe transportation to all parts of the country. THE TRUE FASTOLFF RASPBERRY. HOVEY & Co. INFORM their friends, and the Horticultural world, that they are now enabled to supply fine roots of this superb new raspberry, unequalled both for its size and richness of flavor. The original plants were received from Messrs. Youell & Co. who first introduced this variety to notice, and who have received two prizes from the London Society for its superior qualities. It was also fruited by Messrs. H. & Co., the past year, and proved fully equal to the reputation it had acquired in England. The plants are strong, healthy, and in the best condition, and will be sent to any part of the country on the following terms : Packages containing 25 plants, Packages containing 12 plants, No charge for packing. $5.00 3.00 25 Also a fine stock of the Franconia Raspberry, at $10 per hundred or $150 per dozen. The trade supplied on liberal terms. August 1st, 1846. THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. APRIL, 1847, ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. ART. I. Horticulture of the Past, as compared with the Present. By T. S. HUMRICKHOUSE, Coshocton, Ohio. AT this remote distance of time, it is very difficult for us to estimate justly what proficiency the Antients may have had in Horticulture. Evelyn did not rate it very high. In a letter to Mr. Wotton, he says:-" Concerning the gardening and husbandry of the Antients, which is your inquirie (especially of the first), that it had certainly nothing approaching the elegancy of the present age, Rapinus (whom I send you) will abundantly satisfy you. The discourse you will find at the end of Hortorum, lib. 4. capp. 6, 7. What they called their gardens were only spacious plots of ground planted with platans and other shady trees in walkes, and built about with porticos, xisti, and noble ranges of pillars, adorned with statues, fountaines, piscariæ, aviaries, &c. But for the flowery parterre, beds of tulips, carnations, auricula, tuberose, jonquills, ranunculus, and other of our rare coronaries, we hear nothing of, nor that they had such store and variety of rare exoticks, orangeries, myrtils, and other curious greens; nor do I believe they had their orchards in such perfection, nor by far our furniture for the kitchen. Pliny, indeed, enumerates a world of vulgar plants and olitories, but they fall infinitely short of our physic gardens, books, and herbals, every day augmented by our sedulous botanists, and brought to us from all quarters of the world. And as for their husbandry and more rural skill, of which the same author has written so many books in his Natural History, especially lib. 17, 18, &c., you'll soon be judge what it was. They took great care, indeed, of their vines and olives, stercorations, ingraftings, and were diligent in observing seasons, the course of the stars, &c., and doubtless were very industrious; but when you shall have read over Cato, Varro, Columella, Paladio, with the Greek Geoponicks, I do not think you will have cause to prefer them before the modern agriculture, so exceedingly of late improved, for which you may consult and compare our old Tusser, Markham, the Maison Rustic, Hartlib, Walter Blith, the Philosophical Transactions, and other books, which you know better than myself." If all this might well be said by Evelyn in his day, with how much more propriety now, by us in ours; and with how much greater justice might we not also include his catalogue of the then Moderns. If we examine, however, more critically his remarks, so as to take in the whole scope of the premises he lays down, may we not doubt if his be not too severe a judgment? In what consists the mighty difference? Evelyn goes into particulars; and it cannot be doubted that, of many things, now the rarest and most admired ornaments of our gardens, and the most exquisite delicacies upon our tables, they were entirely destitute; of others, they possessed not the same nor the abundance of excellent varieties that we do: but our author is careful further to note, that "they took great care indeed of their vines and olives, stercorations, ingraftings, and were diligent," &c. : and Solomon, had he consulted him, would have refuted much that he advances about gardens; and Virgil, had he borne him in mind, would have put to flight much more in reference to horticultural skill. Having mentioned Solomon, however familiar he may be to most readers, I must be indulged in one quotation from him --but one, out of many beautiful passages that occur in his Song. "A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire with spikenard, spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices. A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon. Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers; every one, for the fruit thereof, was to bring a thousand pieces of silver. Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth. The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved." If it were desired to magnify this subject, the object would be sufficiently attained by referring to the Mosaic account of the creation of the world. "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed." That much of the skill, and many of the most approved appliances of the gardener's art have come down to him from a very remote antiquity is true beyond dispute. St. Paul seizes upon a figure, derived from this source, to enforce a sublime doctrine. "And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree, boast not against the branches: but, if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well: because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith," &c. To the Antients, then, are we indebted for the knowledge we possess of the art of grafting. This great fact must not be forgotten. And we have also derived from them our knowledge of the operation of budding, sister to the former. This demands from us redoubled acknowledgments. The precise period of the invention of these arts, like many of the most common and useful of our tools and implements of labor, is lost in remote antiquity. To go no further back than Virgil, we find him describing, in graceful hexameters, and not without hyperbole, the modes and the effects both of grafting and budding. Of grafting, he says: "Et sæpe alterius ramos impune videmus Vertere in alterius, mutatamque insita mala |
