18 INTRODUCTION. 



Faneuil, who erected on it the first hothouse in New England. 1 

 On his decease it passed to his nephew, Peter Faneuil. Perhaps 

 the finest of all these estates was that of Thomas Hancock, whose 

 mansion, which remained until 18G3, was situated west of where 

 the State House now stands, the grounds including those occupied 

 by the State House and part of the Reservoir, his nursery being 

 where is now Hancock Street. The garden was laid out in flower- 

 beds bordered with box, and planted with fruit trees on espal- 

 iers, hollies, yews, etc. Later the house and grounds of Gardiner 

 Greene, who owned the larger portion of Pemberton Hill, which he 

 greatly improved and beautified, are spoken of as forming alto- 

 gether the finest private residence in Boston. His greenhouse is 

 said to have been the only one existing at the time in Boston. 

 Gardens such as are now seen only in the suburbs were then found 

 in every part of Boston, and many are remembered by men now 

 living ; but, with the increase of population and trade, they have 

 gradually disappeared. Shade trees were seen everywhere in the 

 streets ; but these also have followed those who planted them. 

 The English elm trees on Tremont Street, opposite Horticultural 

 Hall, known from the planter as "Paddock's Mall," were prob- 

 ably set there in 1762. They were cut down in February, 1874, 

 after efforts had been made by the Horticultural Society and others 

 to save them. 2 



The name of Old Orchard Beach, in Saco, Me., arose from a 

 growth of apple trees planted there at a very early period, some 

 of which remained as late as 1770. A hundred years later the 

 trunks of two apple trees, very much decayed, but one of them 

 still bearing fruit, remained at the site of the ancient 4t Agamen- 

 ticus," or "Gorgeana," in York. This bearing tree stood on 

 land which was originally the homestead of Thomas Gorges, an 

 early mayor of Gorgeana, and governor of the Province, who 

 established himself there about 1641. Tradition avers that this 

 tree had been brought over from England in a tub, and planted 

 where it then stood, more than two hundred years ago. The 

 house of Walter Phillips, who was a noted gardener and public 

 officer in the present towns of Newcastle and Edgecomb, was sur- 

 rounded by an apple orchard. Many other ancient apple, pear, 



1 Andrew Faneuil came to Boston as early as 1709, and died in 1737, so that this hothouse 

 must have been built in the early part of the eighteenth century. SARGENT'S Dealings with 

 the Dead, Vol. II. pp. 506, 512. 



* Drake's Old Landmarks of Boston, pp. 52, 54, 294, 338; Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XI. p. 699. 



