110 ARTHUR E. SHIPLEY 



dragoras of both sexes ; Papyrus made of severall 

 reedes, and some of silke; tables of the rinds of trees 

 written wth Japoniq characters ; another of the 

 branches of palme; many Indian fruites; a chrystal 

 that had a quantity of uncongealed water within its 

 cavity ; a petrified fisher's net ; divers sorts of tarantu- 

 las, being a monstrous spider with lark-like clawes, 

 and somewhat bigger. 



But Evelyn's chief contribution to science, 

 as already indicated, was horticultural. He 

 was devoted to his garden, and, both at his 

 native Wotton, arid, later, at Sayes court, 

 Deptford, spent much time in planting and 

 planning landscape gardens, then much the 

 fashion. 



In the middle of the sixteenth century, the 

 fact that "nitre" promoted the growth of plants 

 was beginning to be recognised. Sir Kenelm 

 Digby and the young Oxonian John Mayow, 

 experimented de Sal-Nitro; and, in 1675, 

 Evelyn writes: "I firmly believe that where 

 saltpetre can be obtained in plenty we should 

 not need to find other composts to ameliorate 

 our ground." His well-known Sylva, pub- 

 lished in 1664, had an immediate and a wide- 

 spread effect, and was, for many years, the 



