OF GARDENS BY LORD BACON 



GOD ALMIGHTY FIRST PLANTED A The royai 



garden. And indeed, it is the purest of human 



r of gardens 



pleasures. It is the greatest refreshment to the 



spirits of man; without which, buildings and 

 palaces are but gross handiworks : and a man 

 shall ever see, that when ages grow to civility 

 and elegancy, men come to build stately, sooner 

 than to garden finely : as if gardening were the 

 greater perfection. I do hold it, in the royal 

 ordering of gardens, there ought to be gardens 

 for all the months in the year: in which, sever- 

 ally, things of beauty may be then in season. 

 For December, and January, and the latterpart 

 of November, you must take such things as are 

 green all winter: holly; ivy; bays; juniper ; cy- 

 press trees; eugh; pine-apple trees; fir trees; 

 rosemary; lavender; peri winkle, the white, the 

 purple, and the blue; germander; flags; orange 

 trees; lemon trees; and myrtles, if they be stov- 

 ed; and sweet marjoram warm set. There fol- 

 loweth, for the latterpart of January, and Febru- 

 ary, the mezereon tree, which then blossoms ; 

 crocus vernus, both the yellow, and the grey ; 

 primroses ; anemones ; the early tulip; hyacin- 

 thus orientalis; chamairis; fritillaria. ForMarch, 

 there come violets, specially the single blue, 



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