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 6 HORTUS SIOCDS would be surprised to find how productive land can be made when husbanded by practical gar- dening. In the best market gardens the soil, by abundant manuring and working, is kept up to the highest attainable state of fertility, and is made to produce always two, and frequently three and four crops in a year. It often hap- pens that a single acre near a large city yields the cultivator a greater profit than many entire farms bring to their owners. Within the last 30 or 40 years horticulture in the United States has rapidly advanced, and its progress has been largely due to the influence of the various horticultural societies, especially those of Penn- sylvania and Massachusetts. In this country there are very few magnificent gardens ; but in the diffusion of a knowledge of horticul- ture among the people at large there has been a steady advance, and a special literature per- taining to the science and practice of horticul- ture has sprung up. The large works of other countries upon the general subject are superior to any yet published here, but our works npon separate topics are more thorough and prac- tical than those of any European country. Among the earlier horticultural works pub- lished in this country is " The American Gar- dener," by yilliam Cobbett (New York, 1819). "The American Gardener's Calendar," by B. McMahon (Philadelphia, 1819), is one of the few works embracing every department of horticulture. In landscape gardening the lead- ing authors are A. J. Downing, Copeland, Weidenmann, and Scott; in arboriculture, Warder, Hoopes, and Bryant; in flower gar- dening, including roses, Breck, Buist, Rand, Parkman, and Parsons. In floriculture under glass, " Practical Horticulture," by Peter Hen- derson (New York, 1868), is the only recent work. Among works on vegetable gardening, the most prominent are Burr's " Vegetables of America," White's " Gardening for the South," Quinn's " Money in the Garden," and Hender- son's "Gardening for Profit." The leading agricultural journals have each a horticultural department with a competent editor, and there are now only three journals devoted solely to horticulture ; these are " The Horticulturist " (New York), established by A. J. Downing in 1846, and now (1874) edited by II. T. Williams; " The Gardener's Monthly " (Philadelphia, 1859), Thomas Meehan, editor; and "The California Horticulturist " (San Francisco, 1871), C. Stephens, editor. HORTL'S SICCUS. See HEKBAEIUM. IIORDS, a god of the Egyptians, son of Osiris and Isis. He represented the rising sun. He pierces with a spear the serpent Apophis or Apap, the vapors of dawn. He avenges his father Osiris, whom Set or Sutekh, also called Baal, kills, and whom the prayers of Isis re- suscitate. The death of Osiris, the grief of Isis, and the final defeat of Set, the god of evil, are common themes in oriental mythologies, and recur in the stories of Cybele and Atys, and of Venus and Adonis. The youthful HOSACK Horus was held forth as a model for all princes, and as a type of royal virtues. He was often represented as a little child, sometimes in the lap of Isis, and always with a finger on his mouth, which is the common Egyptian sign indicative of extreme youth or infancy. The Greeks identified Horus with their god Har- pocrates, whom they represented also with a finger on the lips; but mistaking the signifi- cance of the sign, they regarded it as a symbol of silence, secrecy, and mystery, and ascribed these attributes to the deity. He became ac- cordingly a favorite subject for speculation with the later philosophers. His worship was also carried into Rome, where, probably on account of excesses committed in the mysteri- ous rituals, it was for a while forbidden. The peach was considered the sacred fruit of the god. The Egyptians also believed that Horus held in conjunction with Anubis the balance in which the hearts of the dead are weighed be- fore Osiris and the 42 assessors, and that ho or Smon beheaded those found wanting on the nemma or infernal scaffold. IIOU VATII. lllbily, a Hungarian historian, born at Szentes, Oct. 20, 1809. He was ordained as priest in 1830, and became in 1844 professor of the Hungarian language and literature in the Theresianum at Vienna. In 1848, during the Hungarian revolution, he was made bishop of Csanad, and ex officio a member of the up- per house in the diet ; and in 1849 ho was min- ister of public worship and education. The Hungarian uprising having been overthrown, he took refuge first in France, and afterward in Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy, where for several years he prosecuted his studies in Hun- garian history. In the mean while the Aus- trian government sentenced him to death in his absence. In 1866 he was permitted to re- turn to his native country, and in 1869 he was unanimously elected member of the diet for Szegedin. His works on Hungarian history, in Hungarian, include "Hungarian History" (4 vols., Papa, 1842-'6; abridged in 1 vol., Pesth, 1847; enlarged in 6 vols., 1859-'63 ; German translation, 2d ed., 1861) ; " Twenty-five Years of Hungarian History " (2 vols., Geneva, 1863 ; German translation, Leipsic, 1866); "History of the War of Independence in Hungary" (3 vols., Geneva, 1865); and "Reply to the Let- ters of Kossuth," a pamphlet setting forth the great importance for Hungary of the compro- mise with Austria in 1867. He has also pub- lished a collection of Hungarian historical docu- ments in 4 vols. IIOSACK, David, an American physician, born in New York, Aug. 31, 1769, died Dec. 23, 1835. He studied in Columbia college from 1786 to 1788, thence went to Princeton col- lege, where he graduated in 1789, and receiv- ed his degree as doctor of medicine in Phila- delphia in 1791. He subsequently continued his medical studies in London and Edinburgh ; and on his return home in 1794 brought with him a cabinet of minerals obtained from Wer-