Page:Charles von Hügel (1903 memoir).djvu/48

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16
WIESNER

numerous kinds of Hardenbergia, Pimelia, Pittosporum, and Grevillia[1].

At Schönbrunn, out of the plants taken over from the Hügel gardens, there are now still cultivated: one hundred and thirty one species of Proteacea, two hundred and fifty species of Erica, numerous Ruteaceæ, Diosmeæ, noble species of Papilionacea, including Hovea celsii and pungens[2]. Amongst the Banksias, cultivated at the present time at Schönbrunn, some specimens remain which were derived from the Hügel property, including a few actually gathered by his own hand in Australia.

No Austrian hortologist has done more than Hügel for the introduction of new plants into general garden culture. Next to him must be placed Roezl, on whose career Hügel had no slight influence. Roezl learnt gardening at Vienna under Ludwig Abel, who, after Heller, acted for a long time as chief in the Hügel gardens. Roezl went later to the celebrated gardens of Van Houtte at Ghent. Later still, he travelled in South and Central America, and founded in Mexico a nursery from which he enriched European gardens with many beautiful novelties. He died in the year 1885 at the age of sixty-one, at Prague, where, in grateful remembrance of his merits as gardener and botanist, a monument has been erected to him[3].

With Hügel's name is indissolubly connected the name of a man who is yet a living memory with all of us, whose energy and aptitude have contributed not a little to raise horticulture among us. I mean Daniel Hoibrenk[4]. Hügel recognised the talents of this man, and offered him, under very favourable conditions, the post of head—gardener.

  1. Römpler: Gartenbaulexicon, p. 398.
  2. From information kindly supplied by Herr Umlauf, the Director of the Royal Gardens.
  3. See Notes (13).
  4. Wurzbach (p. 258) gives the name as Hooibrenk. A. v. H.