432. The climate and circumstances of Denmark are much less favourable to gardening than those of Britain; yet horticulture is very successfully practised, especially round the capital. There are very fine apples, pears, plums, cherries, gooseberries, currants, raspberries, and strawberries; and the common culinary vegetables are grown in abundance. It may give a practical idea of the climate in the neighbourhood of Copenhagen, to state, that the Cerasus Laurocerasus requires the same protection there during the winter that the Magnolia grandiflora does in England. One plant lived for thirty years in the shrubbery of the celebrated park of Dronningaard, one of the finest residences in Denmark. It was looked upon as a great curiosity, but was killed with the frost in year 1819-20. Pine-apples are grown in great quantities in the two royal gardens of Rosenborg and Frederiksberg. This valuable fruit is also cultivated in several noblemen and gentlemen's places throughout the king-dom, but is nowhere seen equal to the pines grown in England. The old queen pine was, till lately, the only sort grown in Denmark. Grapes are preserved in Denmark in the open air till the end of December, and sometimes till the middle or end of January. They are ripened on hot walls, in the royal gardens, and protected during the night with reed mats. They hang there till they are cut for use. The sorts of grapes mostly cultivated, and also the hardiest, are the red Van der Lahn, chasselas blanc (the common white muscadine), and the wassersiet (the small white cluster). The Parsille druen (the parsley-leaved malmsey muscadine) is likewise hardy, but does not set well if the weather is cold when it is in bloom. The Franken-dalen (black muscadine) and Pottebakker (the black Hamburgh) are generally grown in vineries, as their ripening on walls is very uncertain, though it sometimes occurs in hot summers. The white sweetwater (perle druen) is the finest white grape known in Denmark, and is always planted in vineries. Peaches. M. Lindegaard introduced the method of rearing peach trees in Denmark, and particularly the mode of preserving them during the first and second winter after budding. They were formerly always imported from Holland. Peach trees are chiefly trained on wooden walls, and, during severe frosts, are covered with straw mats. The kind grown in general is the double montagne (the English Montauban), which ripens its fruit, without artificial heat, about the end of August. Asparagus is grown extensively in the neighbourhood of Copenhagen, and it is forced in the open garden, by placing linings of dung between the beds, so as to be had in abundance from Christmas till summer; and nearly all other sorts of culinary vegetables in general cultivation are grown in Denmark as plentifully as in Britain.
