INTRODUCTORY 17 



World and carefully nurtured in the London gardens, 

 that the citizens " set such store by." There were 

 several of these "worshipful gentlemen" to whom the 

 introduction of flowers is due, and of many a plant 

 Gerard could say with pride, they " are strangers to 

 England, notwithstanding I have them in my garden." 

 Most plants were grown for use, but others "we have 

 them," says Gerard, " in our London gardens rather 

 more for toyes of pleasure than any vertues they are 

 possessed with." Some of the first potatoes introduced 

 were grown in London. Gerard had those in his garden 

 direct from Virginia, and prized them as " a meat for 

 pleasure." Jerusalem artichokes were brought to London 

 by him, and grown there in early days (16 17). Parkin- 

 son also had them, calling them " Potatos of Canada." 

 Bananas were first seen in England in Johnson's the 

 herbalist's shop in Snow Hill. At a much later date — 

 early in last century — the fuchsia was made known for 

 the first time to Lee, a celebrated gardener, who saw a 

 pot of this attractive plant in the window of a house in 

 Wapping, where a sailor had brought it as a present to 

 his wife. So attached to it was she, that she only parted 

 with it when a sum of eight guineas was offered, besides 

 two of the young rooted cuttings. London can claim 

 so many flowers, it would be tedious to enumerate 

 them all. The first cedars in this country grew in the 

 Chelsea Physic Garden, some of the first orchids at 

 Loddige's Garden in Hackney, and many things have 

 emanated from Veitch's Nursery, or the Botanical 

 Gardens in Regent's Park, or the gardens which used 

 to belong to the Royal Horticultural Society in South 

 Kensington. The chrysanthemum in early days flourished 

 in Stoke Newington, and one of the very first results of 



B 



