CHAP. II. BRITISH ISLANDS. 35 
: 
Sussecr. 2. Of the Foreign Trees and Shrubs introduced into Britain 
in the 16th Century. 
THERE is no record which throws any light on the subject of 
the introduction of foreign trees into England previously to the 
time of Henry ViII. Fitzherbert, in 1523, wrote on planting 
and preserving trees for timber and fuel; and Googe, who 
translated Heresbachius in 1578, notices the same subjects. In 
Turner’s Names of Herbes in 1548, the trees mentioned are, the 
almond, the apricot, the pomegranate, Cistus salvizefolius, rose- 
mary, thyme, white jasmine, Spartium junceum, the fig, the 
oriental plane, the elm, the sweet bay, the common black’ mul- 
berry, the stone pine, the spruce fir, the Cupréssus sempervirens, 
and the savin. In his Herbal of 1562, he adds the peach, the 
walnut, and the rue. In 1568 he adds the lavender. It appears 
that foreign trees- and shrubs were not altogether neglected 
in the royal gardens, in the time of Henry VIII.; since, in a 
survey of the royal palace at Nonsuch, in Surrey, in the suc- 
ceeding century, there were, in the wilderness, lilacs, lime trees, 
yews, junipers, and hollies. L’Obel, who published his Adver- 
sarta in 1570, includes the Jasminum fruticans, the Pistacia 
officinarum, and the Genista Scdrpius, among his woody plants. 
Tusser, in 1573, mentions the quince and the Damask rose. 
Grindal, Bishop of London, is said by Fuller to have intro- 
duced the German tamarisk, about the year 1560; but, according 
to Camden and Hakluyt, better authorities, about 1582. Grindal 
was visited at Fulham by the queen, who complained that the 
bishop had so surrounded his house with trees, that she could 
not enjoy the prospect from her chamber windows. Such ex- 
cellent grapes were produced at Fulham by this prelate, that 
some were sent every year to the queen. (Strype’s Life of 
Grindal.) 
Wimbledon House, which was rebuilt by Sir Thomas Cecil 
in 1588, and surveyed by order of the parliament in 1649, was 
celebrated for its gardens and trees. In the several gardens, 
which consisted of mazes, wildernesses, knots, alleys, &c., are 
mentioned a great variety of fruit trees, and some shrubs, par- 
ticularly ‘ a faire bay tree,” valued at 1/., and * one very faire 
tree, called the Irish arbutis, very lovely to look upon, and 
worth 1/. 10s.” (Lysons, i. 397.) Gerard, the first edition of whose 
Catalogue is dated 1596, appears to have had several foreign trees 
and shrubs in his garden in Holborn; and, among others, 
althzea frutex, the laburnum, the Judas tree, six different kinds 
of roses, the laurustinus, the Diospyros Zotus, the white mul- 
berry, the nettle tree, the pinaster, the arbor vita, the yucca, 
and several others, as may be seen by the list below. ; 
D3 
