CHAPTER XXVIII. A WALK IN THE BOTANIC GARDEN. The Italian cottage-The class-room-Female students-St Pierre's flowers of life.-Benefits to be expected from popular lecturesMagnificent range of green-houses and stoves—Heated by stem Excellentlyadapted for the uses to which they are applied-Sumpt exhibition of beautiful exotics-Several of our most useful vegeta of foreign origin-Splendid display of Cape heaths-Lessons t inculcate.-Mr Phillip's beautiful and lively description of be not exaggerated.-General view of the contents of the houspresentatives from the principal tribes of the vegetable g Other specimens of tropical plants-Vegetable curiosities-The st chimney a conspicuous object House for propagating y plants Luxuriant belt of trees and shrubs-American shrubs nan artificial arrangement-Sexual system described and exp -Medical plants-Little nursery-Venerable yew-Monumen be erected to the memory of Linnæus-Eulogium and testim favour of Site for the monument well chosen-Natural system Linnæus described-His amiable character-British plants a ed artificially-A bed of roses- -System of Jussieu-Advantage Imitation of rocks-Sheet of water-Marshy pond—Bank of lows-Corns and grasses-Trees and shrubs, how arrangedprospects-Pleasing hopes-Delightful anticipations. "Go mark the matchless workings of that power, COWPIL In colour those-and these delight the smell; Sends nature forth, the daughter of the skies, To dance on earth, and charm all human eyes.”. "Is it not a privilege to walk with God in the garden of creation, hold converse with his providence? The man who loves botany for i sake, would find himself neither solitary nor desolate, had he no companion than a mountain daisy, that modest crimson tipped f so sweetly sung by one of nature's own poets. The humblest we moss, will ever afford him something to examine or to illustrate, great deal to admire.—SIR J. E. SMITH.' UPON entering the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, passing the Italian cottage, we arrive in front of room where Doctor Graham, the present profesBotany, devotes his mornings during the summer hs to the instruction of his male pupils in that deul-science, and has, this season (1826) for the first also assembled before him for the same rational mportant purpose, during the heats of the midun, animated flowers of a fairer and more delicate whose intellectual culture does so much honour e good sense of the present age; for, if in the s of St Pierre," Women themselves are called the ers of Life, and children its fruits," the intellecas well as the moral cultivation of these early and ising blossoms, ought to be considered as a matter > small moment, were it only for the benefits, which thereby be expected to be derived one day to the ing fruits in their progress to maturity.ti. Harmonies of Nature, vol. i. p. 212. Viewing things in this light, who can forbear giving his tribute plause to the laudable and meritorious exertions of Dr Robert am in these lectures, (at which I am told a very considerable per of ladies attend,) as well as to those of Dr Hope, the present essor of Chemistry, in the well attended course that he has lately uded. These gentlemen, in commencing a series of popular res, each in his respective department, have not only set an exle to others, but have succeeded, it is to be hoped, in throwing n the wall of partition, that has so long, in the form of an absurdly olished usage, stood as a barrier in the way of the further enlarget of the boundaries of science; and so been the means of not only enting the more ample diffusion of knowledge, but of a due proion of it falling to the share of that part of our species, who have nuch scope for, and so many opportunities of communicating the rmation they are so capable of receiving themselves, to the little , over whom they, in general, possess such an unbounded influ Henceforward, we may not only expect to see the tender plants of VOL. 11. I Upon passing onwards beyond this spot, more parti cularly sacred to the purposes of Botanical instruction, and bending our course a little to the northward, we soon find ourselves in the neighbourhood of that double range of magnificent greenhouses and stoves, a view of the contents of which, is of itself, well worth a pilgrim age to these regions of Flora.* These houses being heated by steam, and the temper ature kept up or varied at the pleasure of Mr Macnab, the very able and intelligent superintendent of the gar den, are most admirably adapted for the display of that sumptuous exhibition of beautiful exotics, which are to be found in their luxuriant abodes, and cannot fail to remind us of the blessings we enjoy, in consequence of the importation of so many plants of foreign origin, al though, it is much to be feared, that comparatively few of our countrymen are sufficiently sensible of the cir cumstance, and how much they owe to botanical experi ments. I do not here allude to, what we are indebted in the shape of food to the Sugar-cane of the Brazils and the Indies, the Tea shrub of China, and the Coffee berry of Arabia; or to what we owe the Cotton plants of o human life, fostered and nurtured, by those upon whom they have the most natural claim for care and sustenance,-but, to behold their little minds expanding, under the benign influence of a highly cultivated maternal solicitude, until they are able, for themselves, to range alone the flowery paths of science, and to drink from the same sour ces of intellectual enjoyment, which have contributed so largely to the attainments of their accomplished tutoresses. • Regions of Flora,--this comprehensive spot of twelve Scots acres, may be well styled, when it is considered, that within the walls which constitute the boundary of the garden, there are already supposed to be 11 or 1200 genera, constituting about 9000 distinct speies. countries in respect to clothing,or to the medivirtues of the Cinchona or Peruvian-bark tree, utritious qualities of the Maranta or Indian Arloot plant, the services we receive from the oil e Olives of southern climes, or to those we derive the spiceries of the Moluccas-No: What I have pally in view is, that increasing number of valuand useful esculents, which have, under the proce of God, found their way to our shores from co time, and are still arriving from so many reto adorn our gardens with their varied tints, and our fields with their verdure. "All our corn, great number of our vegetables, (says the pious eflective Sturm,) come from foreign countries, and ally from warmer climates than ours; most of them Italy. Italy got them from Greece, and Greece hem from the east. When America was discova great number of plants and flowers were found which were till then unknown, and which have been transplanted into Europe with much success. and wheat are indigenous in Little Tartary and a, where they still grow without culture,—Rice is roduce of Ethiopia: since the beginning of this ry it has been cultivated in America. The buckcomes originally from Asia." ost of our herbage and vegetables also have a foorigin. Borage comes from Syria; Cresses from ; Cauliflower from Cyprus; and Asparagus from We are indebted to Italy for the Chervil,-Aneth from Portugal and Spain; Fennel,from the Canary Is; Anise and Parsley from Egypt-Garlic is the ace of the east-Shallots come from Siberia, and -raddish from China, we owe the Kidney-beans to the East Indies; the Lentils to France-the orna ments of our gardens, the most beautiful flowers, are also foreign productions-Jessamine comes from the East Indies the Elder-tree from Persia-the Tulip from Cappadocia the Daffodil from Italy-the Lily from Syria-the Tube-rose from Java and Ceylon-the Carnation and Pink from Italy-the Aster from China, &c. I need scarcely add, that the Ruta Baga, so much esteemed in the practice of modern husbandry in our own country, came to us from Sweden. The potatoe, whose extensive diffusion has caused the hearts of so many among the lower orders of the community to rejoice, was first imported into Ireland from Ame rica, from whence it found its way to Britain begin ning of the last century,-while the tall-growing Hol lyhock, which springs up at the doors or ornaments and adorns the walls of our roadside cottages-has been brought all the way from China! In short, it is scarcely possible to say how much we the inhabitants of these islands, are beholden, or obligated, to the vegetable "natives of other climes." They have come from the most distant regions, from the ends of the earth,-in order to augment stores, and add to the number of our earthly comforts; and it has been the business of Botany to select and naturalize them. Our Captain Bligh, it is known, brought the bread-fruit tree from the island of Otaheite, where it had long been growing wild in the fields, to the West Indies, more than 30 years ago, and from thence it had been transmitted to the royal gardens at Kew, where I have since had an opportunity of seeing a specimen of this very interesting vegetable. |