The continental gardens and botanical collections having been rarely
visited by the British gardener, his Grace the Duke of Bedford, with his
usual anxiety for the promotion of useful knowledge, very liberally and
kindly proposed in the autumn of 1835 that I should undertake a
Horticultural Tour, through several parts of Germany, Belgium, and
France, with a view of inspecting the different collections and
productions cultivated in some of the most celebrated horticultural
establishments in these countries.
The notes which are now submitted to the public contain a cursory detail
of the various gardens and objects that came under my observation
during a tour occupying a space of eight weeks,--a period of time which
the reader will readily understand required the utmost diligence on my
part to fulfil the objects I had in view. Yet I was enabled to
investigate such modes of culture as were adopted in the principal
gardens, where the produce appeared in any way superior to our own; to
become thoroughly acquainted with the different systems practised at
various seasons of the year would have required an actual residence of
many months.
In the mode of forcing fruits and management of the kitchen garden
department, the English gardener will find but little abroad superior to
what he is daily accustomed to see at home. It must however be observed
that the zeal and anxiety displayed throughout Germany in the
cultivation and increase of their collections of plants are in no way
inferior to our own. In fact, in succulent plants they far surpass us;
more particularly in their collections of Cacteæ, which appeared to be a
favourite tribe in the principal establishments on the continent. They
are certainly deserving of a more extensive cultivation in this country
than they have hitherto obtained. Their various shapes, numerous spines,
angles, and the splendid flowers of many of the species, form an
interesting and pleasing addition to our botanical establishments; and
of all plants requiring the protection of the greenhouse and artificial
heat, the Cacteæ may be cultivated at the least expense, and exact less
attendance than is generally requisite for hothouse plants. The Palmæ
are also extensively cultivated throughout the continent, and
notwithstanding many of them are planted in gloomy habitations they were
in general very healthy, and evidently more suitable inhabitants for
such structures than the deciduous or hard-wooded species. The hothouses
erected for the cultivation of plants throughout the Prussian dominions
consist of opaque roofs, furnished only with upright lights, which are
ill adapted for the flowering or bringing to perfection many of the
tender species.
In most parts of Germany the pleasure grounds are very deficient in
evergreens, frost being so intense in that country that the
_Rhododendron ponticum_, _Arbutus_, _Laurustinus_, _Daphne_, _Portugal_,
and even common _Laurel_, require the protection of the greenhouse
during the winter season. If these grounds, however, are deficient in
evergreens, they are richly decorated, in most instances, with
ornamental vases, statues, and numerous groups of fine sculpture, which
contribute greatly to the embellishment of a pleasure-ground. As far as
architecture and sculpture are concerned, the continental royal gardens
far surpass those in England; but there did not appear to me in the
quarters I visited to be a spirit for garden-improvement equal to that
which is so generally prevalent in this country.
It now only remains for me to take this opportunity of returning my
thanks to those whose kindness afforded me considerable facilities in
viewing the different gardens described in this tour; they are, however,
more especially due to those horticulturists of Germany by whose
liberality I have been enabled to add above six hundred new and curious
plants to the splendid collection at Woburn Abbey, entrusted to my care;
and I must add, that I found a cheerful inclination, in most instances,
to enter into a correspondence for the mutual exchange of plants and
seeds. The few remarks on different objects, not immediately connected
with Horticulture, which I have ventured to introduce, will it is hoped
be received with that indulgence which my imperfect acquaintance with
such matters may require.