The Old-Fashioned Garden 49 



themselves were fairly crowded out. The story goes that the 

 first lilacs seen in New England were imported by that gay young 

 scapegrace, Sir Harry Frankland, for Agnes Surriage s garden. 



Not the least recommendation of the cleanly, aromatic box 

 wood that was almost universally used for flower bed borders, 

 was the excellent place for bleaching homespun linen afforded 

 by its flat trimmed top. Bricks set in herring bone pattern along 

 the box-edged paths, or pebbles when the garden was near the 

 sea, helped to clean the boots before a foot passed the threshold 

 of the Puritan housewife s spotless dwelling. 



Although every man of consequence in New England, includ 

 ing Governors Endicott and Winthrop, raised and sold fruit trees 

 and plants, comparatively few varieties of flowers were found in 

 the gardens before the Revolution. No one ventured into an 

 exclusive nursery business where neighbourly women had the 

 pleasant custom of exchanging slips of favourite plants, and letters 

 from friends in England usually contained seeds that were doubly 

 welcome, in that they revived cherished memories of the old home. 

 Probably the first commercial nursery was established by Robert 

 Prince, at Flushing, Long Island, about 1730, and for over a 

 century it remained the most prominent one in America. Cater 

 ing to the French Huguenots settled there, who were devoted horti 

 culturists, it brought together the choicest trees, shrubs, and 

 plants from abroad, including Chinese magnolias and the cedar 

 of Lebanon. Probably more beautiful stock has gone forth from 

 the various nurseries at Flushing than from any other single spot 

 in our land. 



But long before the establishment of any nurseries, the Dutch 

 gardens had become famously fine. Ships of the Dutch East 

 India Company brought floral treasures from the ends of the earth. 



