of our Imperial House, it was Charles von Hügel who was recognised, on all sides, as its actual founder, and on him, when he left Viennna, was conferred for life the honorary presidency of this his own creation[1].
With this great achievement in the province of Austrian horticulture, two others associate themselves: the promotion of horticulture by the works successfully carried out in his own gardens, and his influence on the laying out of pleasure-grounds within and without Austria.
In the early years of his garden and during the time of Hügel's absence on his travels, Johann Heller officiated as the responsible gardener[2]. To him was reserved the cultivation of the plants collected by the Baron, and the rearing of plants from the thousand kinds of seeds which he sent home, Heller carried out this difficult task with skill and success, and to the satisfaction of his master.
As was to be expected, the Hügel gardens, with their innumerable novelties, rapidly attained a high reputation. There were, of course, some among the plants brought home from abroad, which proved unsuitable for home cultivation; but not a few have won for themselves a lasting place in the gardens of the world. Thus, only to mention the best known and the most beautiful,Rhododendron nilgheriense, collected by Hügel in the Blue Mountains of India; splendid Banksias, among them Banksia huegelii, and B. rubra; the glorious fern, Cyathea dealbata; Musa ensete, now so commonly found in pleasure-grounds, the only banana species which can be seen, with us, in the open air; further, Aralia crassifolia, Huegelia cœrulea, Sterculia huegelii, Lobelia erinus, Lilium giganteum,
- ↑ Wurzbach: Biographisches Lexikon, Vol. IX, pp. 402–4; Reumont: Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung, 15 June 1870; Fullerton, p. 10; Festschrift der k. k. zool. bot. Gesellschaft, 1901, p. 38.
- ↑ See Notes (12)
