RARE AND NOTABLE PLANTS 



dening was a pleasure if not an "art," 

 and the planting of the good old plain 

 gardeners, who never dreamed their 

 calling would be elevated to a 

 "science," is before us to judge. 



At the house of Isaac Norris, until 

 a generation ago standing on German- 

 town road, near Tenth street, and 

 widely known as "Fairhill," was one 

 of the finest gardens in the colonies. 

 This garden was of the formal type, 

 and "Francis Daniel Pastorius, of Ger- 

 mantown, himself a man of taste, pro- 

 nounced Fair-hill garden the finest he 

 had seen in the whole country," — so 

 wrote Thompson Westcott in "His- 

 toric Mansions" of Philadelphia, and 

 this same writer continues: "Some 

 of the trees and plants came from 

 France. There were catalpas from 

 the Southern States, and it was here 

 were grown the first willow trees 

 (salix alba) in Pennsylvania, the in- 

 troduction of which is told by Frank- 

 lin in his account of noticing the 

 sprouting of a willow which had been 

 used in a basket which he saw on 

 board a ship which came to a wharf 

 on the Delaware. Franklin took the 

 sprout, and presented it to Debby 

 Norris, who planted it, where it be- 



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