188 HINTS ON ACCLIMATING TENDER PLANTSi 



list of garden plants inserted in his book, culled 500 points of 



good Husbandry, printed in 1573. 

 laurel. The laurel was introduced by Master Cole, a meiLchant 



living at Hampstead, some years before l6'29, when Parkinson 



published his Paradisus Terrestris, and at that time we had in 



Orange, myr- oui' gardens, oranges, myrtles of three sorts, laurustinus, cy- 



lie, Ac. press, phillyrca, alaternus, arbutus; a cactus brought from 



passion flower i^t'rmudas, and the passion flower, which last had flowered 



femarkable here, and showed a remarkable particularity, by risins; from 

 particularity. ^, , , ... ,,. , . '' . 



the ground near a month sooner it a seedling plant, than if it 



grew from roots brought from Virginia. 



All still tender. '^^^ these were at that time rather tender plants; Master 



Cole cast a blanket over the top of his laurel, in frosty wea* 



ther, to protect it, but though nearly two centuries hav0 



since elapsed not one of them will yet bear with certainty 



our winter frosts. 



*, ., Thoudi some of these shrubs ripen their seeds in this cli- 



Hate not been o i 



propztgated by mate, it never has been, I believe, the custom of gardeners to 



ittgiish seed. ^^^^ them ; some are propagated by suckers and cuttings, and 



others by imported seeds; consequently the very identical 



laurel introduced by Master Cole, and some otliers of the 



plants enumerated by Parkinson, are now actually growing in 



our gardens; no wonder then, that these original shrubs have 



not become hardier, though probably they would have done 



so, had they passed through several generations by being 



raised from British seeds. 



Plants propa- ^^ '^ ^^"^ ^'^^^^ worthy a trial, as we find that plants raised 



gated by cut* from suckers or cuttings do not grow hardier by time, and as 



tings or suckers , » ^ ■ • • \ ^ ^i i ^i 



do not grow ^"® experiment on zizania points out the roao, to sow tJic 



hardy. Seed seeds of these and such tender shrubs as occasionally ripen 

 should b« them in this climate. Fourteen generations, in the case of the 

 tried. zizania^ produced a complete habit of succeeding in this cli- 



mate, but a considerable improvement in hardiness was evi- 

 dent much earlier. 



In plants that require some years to arrive at puberty, 

 ft)Ulteen generations is more than any man can hope to sur- 

 vive; but a much less number will in many cases be sufficient, 

 and in all, though a complete habit of hardihood is not at- 

 tained, a great progress may be made towards it in a much 



less 



