4 THE HORTICULTURE OF 



the present time. As to the fruits of this region previ- 

 ous to the coming of the colonists, we know but little.* 

 Suffice it to say, that whether Lief and Thorwald, the 

 Scandanavians, did or did not land on our shores in 

 the tenth century, as the Sagas have it, and here saw 

 grapes so abundant that they gave this land the name 

 of Vinland, we know that the vine was found on our 

 coast by Champlain, six centuries after, and that it 

 prospers through twenty-five degrees of latitude ; and, 

 should the phylloxera continue its devastations in 

 Europe, our continent may become literally the Vine- 

 land of the world. No nation possesses such wonder- 

 ful resources for the culture of fruits ; no people have 

 made such rapid progress in the science of Pomology ; 

 and to Boston and vicinity may be traced primarily 

 the wide-spread interest in Horticulture that now per- 

 vades our continent. Nor has this enterprise declined. 

 Massachusetts retains her renown for her skill in horti- 

 cultural science, and her interest in its advancement. 



The earliest account that we have of the fruits and 

 flowers of New England is given by the pilgrims at 

 Plymouth, where, in addition to Indian corn and other 

 grains they also found fruits and flowers which were 

 indigenous to the soil. " Here are grapes," wrote Gov. 

 Edward Winslow, in 1621, "white and red, and very 

 sweet and strong, also ; strawberries, gooseberries, 

 raspberries ; plums of three sorts, white, black, and red, 

 being almost as good as a damson ; abundance of roses, 

 white, red and damask, single, but very sweet." 1 



The first orchard of which we have any account in 

 our vicinity was that of the Kev. William Blackstone 

 (Blaxton), planted on the west slope of Beacon Hill, 2 



* See Dr. Asa Gray's chapter in Boston Memorial, Volume I. 



1 Young's Chronicle of the Pilgrims, p. 234. 



2 Boston Memorial, Vol. I., p. 84. 



