88 BULLETIN OF THE ESSEX INSTITUTE. 



mate. Gilly Flower will continue two years. Fennel 

 must be taken up and kept in a warm cellar all winter. 

 Houseleek prospereth notably. Hollyhock, Sparagus, 

 Satin, — 'we call this herb in Norfolke Sattin' — says Gerard, 

 and among: our women it is called Honestie, Garden 

 Sorrel and Sweet Bryer or Eglantine. English Rose? very 

 pleasantly, Celandine." 



There are very many plants which we have omitted, 

 but the principal familiar ones have been given. We can 

 see that much progress had been made and that the gar- 

 dens were well stocked. When Josselyn made his first 

 visit in 1638-9, he was treated with " half a score very fair 

 pippins " from the Governor's Island in Boston Harbor, 

 though there was then he says, " not one apple tree, nor 

 pear planted yet in no part of the country but upon that 

 island."^ But he has a much better account to give in 

 1671. "The quinces, cherries, damsons, set the dames 

 a work. Marmalad and preserved damsons is to be met 

 with in every house. Our fruit trees prosper abundantly. 

 Apple trees, pear trees, quince trees, cherry trees, plum 

 trees, barberry trees. The countrey is replenished with 

 fair and large orchards." Here end our quotations from 

 the "Rarities " and with one more item, this paper must be 

 brought to a close. " Sebastian Raslis, a missionary from 

 the Society of Jesuits to the Indians in North America, 

 1689, in speaking of the method of illuminating his 

 chapel, observes that he had found an excellent substitute 

 for wax, by boiling the berries of a kind of laurel in 

 winter and skimming oflf the thick, oily substance which 

 rose to the top. Twenty-four pounds of this beautiful 

 green wax, and an equal amount of tallow will make one 

 hundred wax candles of a foot long." 



* Probably Josselyn was mistaken. The Governor Eudecott pear-tree is thought 

 to have been planted where it now stands, in 1G30.— Memoir of John Endecott, 

 by Chas. M. Endlcott, p. 23, note.— Editok. 



