HISTORICAL NOTES 5 



In the latter part of the seventeenth century and the early years of the 

 following one, the most notable name in connection with hardy trees 

 and shrubs is that of Henry Compton, Bishop of London from 1675 to 

 1713. In his garden at Fulham he got together the most extensive 

 collection that had hitherto been seen in the British Isles. By 1713, 

 when Compton died, probably 400 species of foreign trees and shrubs 

 were in cultivation in England. Of especial interest at that time were the 

 American introductions, such as the spruces, red oaks, hickories, walnuts, 

 magnolias, thorns, maples, and the tulip tree. Many of these had been 

 sent home to Bishop Compton by John Banister, a missionary in 

 Virginia, who was the author of the first catalogue of American plants. 

 He was killed in 1692 by falling from a rock whilst collecting. 



Another person interested largely in this branch of horticulture, and 

 contemporary with Compton, was the Duchess of Beaufort, who 

 planted extensively in the gardens at Badminton. 



The foundation of the Oxford Botanic Garden 'in 1621, of Chelsea 

 Physic Garden about 1674, and that of the Edinburgh Botanic Garden in 

 1680, must have had a stimulating effect on the cultivation of exotic trees 

 and shrubs, as well as of other plants. At this period the site now 

 covered by the Botanic Gardens of Kew was owned by Sir Henry 

 (afterwards Lord) Capel, in whose hands it became one of the finest 

 private gardens in the kingdom. 



Among trees introduced in the seventeenth century, the one destined 

 to play the most important part in the sylva of Great Britain and Ireland 

 was the common larch (Larix europced), said to have been first brought to 

 Britain, under the auspices of Parkinson, in 1629. It was not, however, 

 until a century later, namely, in 1738, that it first began to be planted as 

 a forest tree. The pioneer in this work was the 2nd Duke of Atholl, and 

 it was his son, the 3rd Duke, whose planting (it is said) of 27 millions 

 of larch trees gained him the soubriquet of "the planter." 



Next in importance to the larch, and introduced the same year, was 

 the horse chestnut. It reached W. Europe by way of Constantinople 

 through the agency of the botanist Clusius, but its true native home, 

 which is Northern Greece, long remained a mystery. The common 

 silver fir was introduced by Sarjeant Newdigate from Central Europe 

 in 1603. The well-known tulip tree first reached this country in 1663; 

 whilst the cedar of Lebanon, than which no* tree ever introduced has 

 made a finer or more conspicuous feature in our gardens and parks, came 

 a few years later. 



The eighteenth century witnessed a remarkable increase in the interest 

 taken in hardy trees and shrubs by planters in the British Isles, both 

 amateur and professional, and in the number of exotic species cultivated. 

 One of the most notable amateurs was the Duke of Argyll (1680-1761), 



