HYDE PARK 



39 



the dullest operations of farming and gardening into 

 fields for enterprise and treasuries of possible discoveries, 

 it is humiliating to find the water in Hyde Park being 

 used for like experiments as long ago as 1691-92. 

 Stephen Switzer, a gardener, who would have been de- 

 scribed by his contemporaries as a " lover of ingenuities," 



Dolphin Fountain in Hyde Park 



was fond of indulging in speculations, and studied the 

 effect of water on plants. He quotes a series of ex- 

 periments made by Dr. Woodward on growing plants 

 entirely in water, or with certain mixtures. For iifty-two 

 days during the summer of 1692 he carefully watched 

 some plants of spearmint, which were all "the most 

 kindly, fresh, sprightly Shoots I could chuse," and were 

 set in water previously weighed. For this trial he selected 

 " Hyde Park Conduit water " — one pure, another had an 



