Cicero sometimes speaks of Hortensius very favourably, and even almost affectionately, though it would appear from some passages in his letters that he never quite trusted him. He could not have thought him a high-principled man, as he openly charged him with bribery, and as he actually j mentions a case in which he claimed property under a will j which he knew to be a forgery (De Ojficiis, iii. 18). Hortensius, in fact, seems to have been a lax, easygoing, clever man, with very little noble ambition and very little real moral worth. " An amiable Epicurean " is a phrase which describes him not unfairly. The anecdotes we have about him all point to a man of luxurious tastes and a great capacity for enjoyment. The vast wealth he had accumu lated during forty-four years of successful practice he spent after the fashion of rich lioman nobles, in splendid villas, in parks, in fish ponds, and costly entertainments. He left his heir an unusually well-stocked cellar of wine, and his park at Laurentum abounded in every variety of game. He was also a great buyer of pictures and works of art. With true consistency he opposed Pompeius and Crassus when they proposed their sumptuary law. He is said to have spoken wittily on the occasion ; he was at any rate successful.
There is a good account of Hortensius in Dnnlop s Roman Litera ture (ii. 222), and in Smith s Dictionary of Greek ami Roman Biu- grajihy his life and career are traced as thoroughly as the materials at our disposal allow.
HORTICULTURE
HORTICULTURE embraces both the art and the science of the cultivation of garden plants, whether for utilitarian or for decorative purposes. The subject naturally divides itself into two sections, which we here propose to treat separately, commencing with the science, and passing on to the practice of the cultivation of flowers, fruits, and vegetables as applicable to the home garden.
Part I.—Principles or Science of Horticulture.
Horticulture, apart from the mechanical details connected with the maintenance of a garden and its appurtenances, may be considered as the application of the principles of vegetable physiology to the cultivation of plants. The lessons derived from the abstract principles enunciated by the physiologist, the chemist, and the physicist require, however, to be modified to suit the special circumstances of plants under cultivation. The necessity for this modifica tion arises from the fact that such plants are subjected to conditions more or less unnatural to them, and that they are grown for special purposes which are at variance, in degree at any rate, with their natural requirements.
The life of the plant makes itself manifest in the pro cesses of growth, development, and reproduction. By growth is here meant mere increase in bulk, and by development the series of gradual modifications by which a plant originally simple in its structure and conforma tion becomes eventually complicated, and endowed with distinct parts or organs. The reproduction of the higher plants takes place either asexually by the formation of buds or organs answering thereto, or sexually by the pro duction of an embryo plant within the seed. The con ditions requisite for the growth, development, and reproduc tion of plants are, in general terms, exposure, at the proper time, to suitable amounts of light, heat, and moisture, and a due supply of appropriate food. The various amounts of these needed in different cases have to be adjusted by the gardener, according to the nature of the plant, its " habit " or general mode of growth in its native country, and the in fluence to which it is there subjected, as also in accordance with the purposes for which it is to be cultivated. <fcc. It is but rarely that direct information on all these points can be obtained; but inference from previous experience, especially with regard to allied vegetable forms, will go far to supply such deficiencies. Moreover, it must be remembered that the conditions most favourable to plants are not always those to which they are subjected in nature, for, owing to the competition of other vegetable forms in the struggle for existence, liability to injury from insects, and other adverse circumstances, plants may actually be excluded from the localities best suited for their development. The gardener therefore may, by modifying, improve upon the conditions under which a plant naturally exists. Thus it frequently happens that in our gardens flowers have a beauty and a fragrance, and fruits a size and savour denied to them in their native haunts. It behoves the judicious gardener, then, not to be slavish in his attempts to imitate natural conditions, and to bear in mind that such attempts must sometimes necessarily be failures. The most successful gardening is that which turns to the best account the plastic organization of the plant, and enables it to develop and multiply as perfectly as possible. Experience, coupled with observation and reflexion, as well as the more in direct teachings of tradition, are therefore of primary im portance to the practical gardener.
We propose here to notice briefly the several parts of a flowering plant, and to point out the rationale of the cultural procedures connected with them.
The Root.—The root, though not precluded from access of air, is not directly dependent for its growth on the agency of light. The efficiency of drainage, digging, hoeing, and like operations is accounted for by the manner in which they promote aeration of the soil, raise its temperature, and remove its stagnant or superfluous moisture. Owing to their growth in length at, or rather in the immediate vicinity of, their tips, roots are enabled to traverse long distances by surmounting some obstacles, penetrating others, and insinuating themselves into narrow crevices. As they have no power of absorbing solid materials, their food must be of a liquid or gaseous character. It is taken up from the interstices between the particles of soil exclusively by the finest subdivisions of the fibrils, and in many cases by the extremely delicate thread-like cells which project from them, and which are known as root-hairs. The number and density of these latter are in direct pro portion to the abundance and suitability of the food of the plant. The importance of the root-fibres, or "feed ing roots," justifies the care which is taken by every good gardener to secure their fullest development, and to prevent as far as possible any injury to them in digging, potting, and transplanting, such operations being therefore least prejudicial at seasons when the plant is in a state of comparative rest.
