50 The American Flower Garden 



Governor Peter Stuyvesant, who had a large farm on the &quot;Bou- 

 werie&quot; and a garden about his mansion, White Hall, at the Bat 

 tery, kept forty slaves at work on his grounds, which apparently 

 contained a greater variety of foreign and native trees, shrubs, and 

 flowers than any other estate in old New Amsterdam. Such an 

 estate was, of course, the rarest exception. The Colonists as a 

 rule were poor, hard-working people and their own flower gardeners. 

 When Manhattan contained barely a thousand inhabitants, Adrian 

 Van der Donck observed: &quot;The flowers in general, which the 

 Netherlanders have introduced, are the red and white roses of 

 different kinds, the cornelian roses and stock roses, and those of 

 which there were none before in the country, such as eglantine, 

 several kinds of gilly flowers, jenoffelins, different varieties of fine 

 tulips, crown imperials, white lilies, the lily fritilaria, anemones, 

 baredames, violets, marigolds, summer sots, etc. The clove tree 

 has also been introduced, and there are various indigenous trees 

 that have handsome flowers which are unknown in the Nether 

 lands. We also find there are some flowers of native growth, as 

 for instance, sun flowers, red and yellow lilies, mountain lilies, 

 morning stars, red, white and yellow maritoffles (a very sweet 

 flower), several species of bell flowers, etc., to which I have not 

 given particular attention, but amateurs would hold them in high 

 estimation and make them widely known/ Gay gardens, these, 

 of the Dutch vrouws! Either some of their old favourites are lost 

 forever or they masquerade under new names on modern nursery 

 lists, which, bewilderingly long as they are, mention no jenoffe 

 lins, alas, nor baredames, nor maritorfles. 



The thrifty Dutch particularly favoured sunken gardens 

 three or four feet below the level of the lawn and enclosed by a 

 brick wall that served as a wind-break. Vegetables so protected 



