29 



BACON'S PLAN OF A GARDEN 



GOD Almighty first planted a garden ; and indeed A Garden 

 it is the purest of human pleasures. It is the greatest a 

 refreshment to the spirits of man ; without which 

 building 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 * Perpe- 



10 ought to be gardens for all the months in the year in * e ver 

 which, severally, things of beauty may be then in Garden. 

 season. For December and January (and the latter 

 part of November) you must take such things as are 

 green all winter holly, ivy, bays, jumper, cypress- 

 trees, yew, pineapple-trees, fir-trees, rosemary, lavender, 

 periwinkle (the white, the purple, and the blue), ger- 

 mander, flag, orange-trees, lemon-trees, and myrtles 

 (if they be stoved), and sweet marjoram (warm set). 

 There followeth, for the latter part of January and 



20 for February, the mezereon-tree, which then blossoms ; 

 also crocus vernus, both the yellow and the grey; 

 primroses, anemones, the early tulip, hyacinthus orien- 

 talis, chamairis, fritillaria. For March, there come 

 violets, especially the single blue which are the 

 earliest ; also the early daffodil, the daisy, the almond- 

 tree in blossom, the peach-tree in blossom, the cor- 

 nelian-tree in blossom, sweetbriar. In April, follow 

 the double white violet, the wallflower, the stock- 

 gilliflower, the cowslip, flower-de-luces, and lilies of 



so all natures, rosemary-flowers, the tulip, the double 

 peony, the pale daffodil, the French honeysuckle, the 



