114 PERIOD IV. 



journey into France, left it with Clusius to be germi- 

 nated. The tuHps which came up were of various 

 colours, an indication of long- cultivation. The Turks, 

 like the Persians, took great delight in gardens. 



As North America became permanently occupied by 

 the English, facilities for the transport of live plants to 

 Europe steadily increased. Ships began to sail frequently 

 to and fro, for the crossing of the Atlantic was but a 

 small affair in comparison with the voyage round the 

 Cape of Good Hope. Educated men here and there 

 practised the learned professions in the American planta- 

 tions, and among them a sprinkling of naturalists was 

 found. Hothouses, the amusement of wealthy amateurs 

 in Germany, France, and Holland, made it possible to 

 protect the plants of mild climates from the winter cold 

 of northern Europe. By the end of the seventeenth 

 century our gardens had acquired many beautiful and 

 curious American plants, besides a few from the East 

 Indies, and not long afterwards the gains became so 

 frequent that the botanists of Europe found it hard to 

 name the new species as fast as they came in. 



Lovers of horticulture will tolerate a little further 

 information concerning the early use of hothouses. As 

 soon as glass began to be employed in domestic archi- 

 tecture, the construction of warmed and glazed chambers, 

 in which plants could be grown, was attempted. Writers 

 of the first century a.d. mention them, and Seneca 

 explains how the temperature might be kept up by hot 

 water. This and other refinements of the Roman 

 Empire passed into oblivion during the long decline of 

 civilisation, but revived with the revival of the arts. 

 In the sixteenth century William IV., Landgraf of 

 Hesse, who is remembered, among other things, as a 

 patron of the botanist Clusius, built himself a green- 



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