60 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



intelligent man just previous to the illuminating of botany 

 through the works of Linnaeus, who in 1739 was only 

 thirty-two. He knew that earthworms were hermaphro- 

 dites, but from a text of Scripture he was convinced that 

 plants have their seeds in themselves, and that every 

 plant contained in itself male and female powers. The 

 common Aucuba, so long a puzzle to botanists, only 

 received its green-leaved pollen-bearing mate from Japan 

 towards the middle of this century. Before that it was 

 only propagated by cuttings, and never bore any red 

 berries. The gardening books of the last century are full 

 of useful hints, as gardening was then practised and 

 written about by men of the highest education ; and very 

 often this was done solely for botanical and what they 

 called ' philosophical ' reasons. Sometimes the childish 

 earnestness of their ignorance concerning facts now 

 known to every schoolchild accentuates the extraordinary 

 advance and increased popularising of knowledge since 

 that day. 



1732. ' Hortus Elthamensis, a Johanne Jacobo Dil- 

 lenio, M.D.' Two folio volumes published in London, 

 and interesting as showing the general development of the 

 improved power of illustrating. The plates are coloured 

 by hand, and contain many figures of Cape Aloes, Gera- 

 niums, and other African plants, either depicted with 

 their roots or as growing out of the ground. The text is 

 in Latin. 



1771. ' Uitgezochte Planten, by Christ. Jacob Trew, 

 Georgius Dionysius Ehret, Joh. Jacob Haid.' The 

 characteristic of this large folio is that it begins with 

 very fine separate portraits of the three authors. One 

 seems to have been the botanist, one the artist, and one 

 the engraver. It was brought out at Amsterdam by sub- 

 scription, as was so common with handsome books in 

 those days. The book begins with a long list of sub- 



