A public botanic garden has recently been set on foot at IIull ; it is on an extensive .scale, and can already boast of a very ample collection of plants. For it the public are in a great measure indebted to William Spence, Esq. well known not only as a naturalist, but as a writer on some questions of political economy.
28. At Dublin, there are now two botanic gardens ; one belonging to the Dublin Society, and another to Trinity College.
The former was established about the year 1798. It contains twenty-four acres (Irish). The collection of plants is very extensive. The general arrangement of the hardy herbaceous kinds is according to the system of Linnxus; each Linnean class standing separate in a large grass lawn, and an alley leading from one class to another. Aquatics are necessarily placed by themselves ; and near the Aqua rium, there is a piece of marshy ground for bog plants. Shrubs form another division, and trees a third. The col lections in all of these departments are very extensive. In one part of the garden there is an arrangement, on a small scale, according to the method or Jussieu. Plants indige nous to Ireland are brought together, so as to exhibit the Flora of the country at one view ; but they occur likewise in their places in the general arrangement. They have in this garden what are termed cattle gardens, containing plants which different animals arc supposed to eat or to re fuse. There is a piece of ground set apart for making ex periments on the different gramina, and also on what are called artificial grasses, such as clovers, trefoils, saintfoin, lucern : this department, if properly attended to, is evidently calculated to be very useful. The stoves and greenhouses are extensive, and contain a numerous col lection.
The College botanic garden was established only in 1806. It occupies no more than three acres and a half. It is enclosed by a wall twelve feet high, the south-east as pect of which is faced with brick, and on this the more de licate of the hardy climbing shrubs, and others which re quire shelter, are tt ained. Here .for instance, Metroside ros lanceolata flowers every year, and here may be seen the finest specimen in the three kingdoms, perhaps, of Ligustrum lucidum, or the wax•tree of China, and which escaped unhurt in this situation, during the severe winter of 1813, when the original plant from which it was taken perished in England. There is in the garden a general ar rangement of herbaceous, perennial, and biennial plants ; the annual plants and the gramina being each kept separ ate. Although the space is small, there is not only a Fru ticetum, but an Arboretum ; and, with equal taste and judgment, the principal part of this last is so contrived, as to serve for a screen to give shelter to the rest of the gar den. There is an extensive collection of the hardy medi
cinal plants, arranged according to Jussieu's method. There is only one stove and one greenhouse; but the exo tics cultivated in these are curious and numerous. Upon the whole, this small botanic garden contains a richer and more varied collection than is perhaps to be found any where else in Europe within the same compass. It does honour to the liberality and public spirit of the heads of the College; and they seem to have been peculiarly fortu nate in their gardener, (Mr James Townsend Mackay, originally from the Botanic Garden at Edinburgh), who has here proved, that, to a thorough knowledge of prac tical horticulture, and extensive acquisitions in botany, he adds an acquaintance with the principles of landscape gar dening.
29. The Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh was plan ned, in 1767, by Dr John Hope, then professor of botany. The collection of plants, both hardy and tender, formed by Dr Hope, was uncommonly great ; and some of the rarer trees and shrubs planted by him now afford admirable full grown specimens : the Constantinople hazel, (Corylus colurna,) for example, now appears as a fine and lofty tree. The plant was here first cultivated, by the Doc tor, in the open air in this country. The quarter where it grew was sheltered by a yew hedge, and saw-dust was ge nerally laid over the root of the plant during winter. There are two hot-houses, a dry stove, and a large greenhouse; all of them at present in a state of decay ; but likely soon to be rebuilt in a magnificent style, and on an extensive scale. Dr Hope was a zealous disciple of Lintimus, and on the death of that illustrious botanist, he pla"ced in the garden a square monument, surmounted by an urn, with the simple inscription, " Linmeo posuit Jo. Hope, 1779." It deserves to be recorded, that in the dry stove a dragon's blood tree (Draccena draco) planted by the Doctor, attained the height of thirty feet, exactly double that of the largest specimen of the plant at Kew ; but this invaluable plant, which ought to have been the pride and boast of the Scot tish capital, absolutely perished, owing to the want of funds for raising the glass-roof of the house ! In this garden lec tures are delivered by Dr Daniel Rutherford, Professor of Botany in the University of Edinburgh. The herbarium of the late Dr Hope is kept at the garden. The present superintendent is Mr William Macnab, who was bred at Kew Gardens, and who is at once an excellent cultivator of plants and an acute botanist. Under his management the collection of hardy herbaceous plants has been so greatly enlarged, that it is now excelled only by that at Kew Gar dens.