and other Sermons; Prolegomena to . . . Romans and Ephesians (1895); The Ante-Nicene Fathers (1895); and two Dissertations, on the reading μονογενὴς θεός in John i. 18, and on The Constantinopolitan and other Eastern Creeds in the Fourth Century. All are models of exact scholarship and skilful use of materials.
His Life and Letters was edited by his son, Sir Arthur Hort, Bart. (1896).
HORTA, the capital of an administrative district comprising
the islands of Pico, Fayal, Flores and Corvo, in the Portuguese
archipelago of the Azores. Pop. (1900) 6574. Horta is a
seaport on the south-east coast of Fayal. It is defended by
two castles and a wall, but these fortifications are obsolete.
The harbour, a bay 2 m. long and nearly 1 m. broad, affords
good anchorage in 5 to 20 fathoms of water, but is dangerous
in south-westerly and south-easterly winds. It is the headquarters
of profitable whale, tunny, bonito and mullet fisheries.
Its exports include sperm-oil, fruit, wine and grain. Between
1897 and 1904 the port annually accommodated about 140 vessels
of 220,000 tons, mostly of British or Portuguese nationality.
HORTEN, a seaport of Norway, in Jarlsberg-Laurvik amt
(county), beautifully situated on the west bank of the Christiania
Fjord, opposite Moss, 38 m. by water and 66 by rail S.
of Christiania. Pop. (1900) 8460. It is practically united with
Karl-Johansvaern, which is defended by strong fortifications,
is the headquarters of the Norwegian fleet, and possesses an
arsenal and shipbuilding yards. There are also an observatory
and a nautical museum.
HORTENSIUS, QUINTUS (114–50 B.C.), surnamed Hortalus,
Roman orator and advocate. At the age of nineteen he made
his first speech at the bar, and shortly afterwards successfully
defended Nicomedes III. of Bithynia, one of Rome’s dependants
in the East, who had been deprived of his throne by his brother.
From that time his reputation as an advocate was established.
As the son-in-law of Q. Lutatius Catulus he was attached to the
aristocratic party. During Sulla’s ascendancy the courts of
law were under the control of the senate, the judges being
themselves senators. To this circumstance perhaps, as well as to
his own merits, Hortensius may have been indebted for much of
his success. Many of his clients were the governors of provinces
which they were accused of having plundered. Such men were
sure to find themselves brought before a friendly, not to say
a corrupt, tribunal, and Hortensius, according to Cicero (Div.
in Caecil. 7), was not ashamed to avail himself of this advantage.
Having served during two campaigns (90-89) in the Social War,
he became quaestor in 81, aedile in 75, praetor in 72, and consul
in 69. In the year before his consulship he came into collision
with Cicero in the case of Verres, and from that time his supremacy
at the bar was lost. After 63 Cicero was himself drawn towards
the party to which Hortensius belonged. Consequently, in
political cases, the two men were often engaged on the same
side (e.g. in defence of Rabirius, Murena, Publius Cornelius
Sulla, and Milo). After Pompey’s return from the East in 61,
Hortensius withdrew from public life and devoted himself to
his profession. In 50, the year of his death, he successfully
defended Appius Claudius Pulcher when accused of treason
and corrupt practices by P. Cornelius Dolabella, afterwards
Cicero’s son-in-law.
Hortensius’s speeches are not extant. His oratory, according to Cicero, was of the Asiatic style, a florid rhetoric, better to hear than to read. He had a wonderfully tenacious memory (Cicero, Brutus, 88, 95), and could retain every single point in his opponent’s argument. His action was highly artificial, and his manner of folding his toga was noted by tragic actors of the day (Macrobius, Sat. iii. 13. 4). He also possessed a fine musical voice, which he could skilfully command. The vast wealth he had accumulated he spent on splendid villas, parks, fish-ponds and costly entertainments. He was the first to introduce peacocks as a table delicacy at Rome. He was a great buyer of wine, pictures and works of art. He wrote a treatise on general questions of oratory, erotic poems (Ovid, Tristia, ii. 441), and an Annales, which gained him considerable reputation as an historian (Vell. Pat. ii. 16. 3).
His daughter Hortensia was also a successful orator. In 42 she spoke against the imposition of a special tax on wealthy Roman matrons with such success that part of it was remitted (Quint. Instit. i. 1. 6; Val. Max. viii. 3. 3).
In addition to Cicero (passim), see Dio Cassius xxxviii. 16, xxxix. 37; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 81, x. 23, xiv. 17, xxxv. 40; Varro, R.R. iii. 13. 17.
HORTENSIUS, QUINTUS, dictator of Rome 286 B.C. When
the people, pressed by their patrician creditors, “seceded”
to the Janiculum, he was commissioned to put an end to the
strife. He passed a law whereby the resolutions of the multitude
(plebiscita) were made binding on all the citizens, without
the approval of the senate being necessary. This was not a
mere re-enactment of previous laws. Another law, passed about
the same time, which declared the nundinae (market days)
to be dies fasti (days on which legal business might be transacted),
is also attributed to him. He is said to have died while still
dictator.
Aulus Gellius xv. 27; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xvi. 15; Macrobius, Saturnalia i. 16; Livy, Epit. ii.
HORTICULTURE (Lat. hortus, a garden), the art and 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. The point of view taken is necessarily,
as a rule, that of a British gardener.
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 plant physiology to the cultivation of plants from all parts of the globe, and from various altitudes, soils and situations. 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 modification 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 (see Plants) makes itself manifest in the processes 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 conformation, 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 production of an embryo plant within the seed. The conditions requisite for the growth, development and reproduction 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 influence to which it is there subjected, as also in accordance with the purposes for which it is to be cultivated, &c. It is but rarely that direct information on all these points can be obtained; but inference from previous experience, especially with regard to allied 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 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, and does, by modifying, improve upon the conditions under which a plant naturally exists. Thus it frequently happens that in our gardens flowers have a beauty
