256 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND. 



in London or the suburbs ; Furber at Kensington ; Alston, 

 Miller, and Thompson at Chelsea ; Lowe and Cole in 

 Battersea ; Fairchild, Whitmill, and Bacon at Hoxton ; Francis 

 and Samuel Hunt at Putney; Gray at Fulham,* James in 

 Lambeth, George Singleton at the Neat Houses ; and Wrn. 

 Hood at the Wheatsheaf near Hyde Park Corner. Every 

 month, for five or six years, this Society met at NewhalPs 

 Coffee-house in Chelsea, or some other convenient place. Each 

 member brought some plants of his own growing, which were 

 discussed by the assembled gardeners. The names and 

 descriptions were then carefully registered. At the end of five 

 or six years,, they decided to have all the plants they had 

 catalogued, " drawn and painted by an able hand." For 

 this purpose they engaged the services of Jacob van 

 Huysum ; a good artist, and brother of the famous Dutch 

 flower painter. They got together a large collection of 

 drawings, and finally agreed to publish them. The first part 

 only, containing hardy shrubs, appeared. It was to have been 

 followed by other volumes, for more tender exotics, then 

 " flowers for the pleasure-gardens," and also a part devoted 

 to fruits. The great value of the part we have, is that it 

 mentions all the synonyms and refers to many previous writers 

 to identify each plant, and gives the history of the introduction 

 of some of the new varieties ; their monograph on the 

 honeysuckle, which occupies several pages, is of great worth. 

 They also refer to good specimens of trees in some well-known 

 London gardens. The following is an instance, the service tree 

 (= Pyrus Sorbus) : " In the garden which was formerly in the 

 possession of John Tradescant at South Lambeth, as also at 

 Mr. Marsh's at Hammersmith, a curious collector of rare and 

 uncommon trees, in both which places, these Trees annually 

 produce large quantities of Fruits which ripen perfectly well." 

 Again, there is a note added to the description of the " Three 

 Thorned Acacia or Locust Tree" (= Gleditschia triacanthos) , "that 

 it hath produced pods in the gardens of the Bishop of London 

 at Fulham this year 1729." The Naturalist Catesby is often 



* The magnolia grandiflora was first planted in Gray's garden. See 

 Johnson's Hist. Eng. Gar., p. 202. 



