196 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND. 



annuals, for the raising of new varieties of divers kinds. 

 These garSens will not be maintained and kept well furnished 

 without a Nurcery, as well of stocks for fruits as of flowers and 

 seedlings where many pretty conclusions may be practised." 



Rea's description shows what great attention was paid to the 

 culture of bulbs, especially tulips, in the average small garden. 

 " Tulip fever " was at its height, and although it never reached 

 such a climax in England as it did in Holland, the flowers were 

 justly popular. Fifty years after the first tulip was seen in 

 Augsburg (1559) the flower was well known and largely 

 cultivated throughout Germany, Holland and England. About 

 seven distinct varieties were grown, and endless variations 

 propagated from them, and the rage for procuring fresh colours 

 became a passion among gardeners. Rea's son-in-law, Samuel 

 Gilbert, in his Florist's vade mecum* gives a plan of a garden 

 for tulips. The beds are divided into squares, and numbered 

 up to fifty, and each division was intended for a distinct variety 

 of tulip. 



A present of tulips was much valued, or an exchange 

 was effected among friends, and each new variety carefully 

 treasured. The following notes occur in a pocket-book of 

 Sir Thomas Hanmer: "Tulips sent to Sir J. Trevor 1654 

 i Peruchot i Admiral Enchuysen i of my Angelicas i Comisetta 

 i Omen i of my best Dianas, all very good bearing rootes, sent 

 by my wife from Haulton." " June 1655 Lord Lambert, I 

 sent him by Rose a very great mother-root of Agate Hanmer." 

 This was a tulip grown in his own garden at Bettisfield, its 

 colours were gris de lin, crimson and white. Sir Thomas 

 Hanmer has also left notes on their culture. " Set them in 

 the ground about the full moon in September about four inches 

 asunder and under four inches deep, set the early ones where 

 the sun in the spring may come hot on them. Set the later 

 kinds where the noon sun may not be too fierce on them. 

 Let the earth be mold taken from the fields, or where wood- 

 stacks have been, and mix it with a fourth part or more of 

 sand. Make your beds at least half a yard thick of this mold. 



* Second Edition, 1683. 



