THE ENRICHMENT OF ENGLISH GARDENS iir 



were now and then imported from foreign monasteries. 

 The English names of the plants, which are often 

 adaptations of Latin words, still testify to the care of 

 gardeners who were in the habit of using Latin. 



Much improvement was not to be expected so long 

 as England suffered from frequent and desolating wars 

 within her own borders. When these at last subsided, 

 great English gardens, such as those of Nonsuch, 

 Hatfield, Theobalds, and Hampton Court, began to 

 parade their beauty ; strange trees, shrubs, and flowers 

 were brought from the continent, and as early as Queen 

 Elizabeth's time our shrubberies and walks were admired 

 by spectators familiar with the best that Italy and 

 France could show. The new horticulture was, how- 

 ever, long an exotic among us, and John Evelyn, 

 whose Sylva appeared in 1664, was "the first to teach 

 gardening to speak proper English." 



In the latter part of the sixteenth century the follow- 

 ing new plants among others were brought from central 

 or southern Europe : The poppy and star anemones, 

 the hepatica, the common garden larkspur, the winter 

 aconite, the sweet-William, the laburnum, Rosa centi- 

 folia (of eastern origin, the parent of countless varieties 

 and hybrids), the myrtle, the lavender, the cyclamen, 

 the auricula. Iris germanica, and many other Irids, the 

 oriental hyacinth, several species of Narcissus, the 

 white and Martagon lilies, and the absurdly named 

 dog's-tooth-violet (really a lily). The botanist Clusius 

 introduced the jonquil and the Tazetta narcissus from 

 Spain to the Low Countries. The Judas-tree (i.e.^ 

 tree of Judaea) was brought from the Mediterranean, 

 where the hollows of the hills are filled in April with 

 its pale-purple blooms. The white jasmine was im- 

 ported from Asia, and the castor-oil plant from Africa. 



