CHAP. II. BRITISH ISLANDS. 



SUBSECT. 2. Of the Foreign Trees and Shrubs introduced into Britain 

 in the \6th Century. 



THERE is no record which throws any light on the subject of 

 the introduction of foreign trees into England previously to the 

 time of Henry VIII. Fitzherbert, in 1523, wrote on planting 

 and preserving trees for timber and fuel ; and Googe, who 

 translated Heresbachius in 1578, notices the same subjects. In 

 Turner's Names of Herbes in 1548, the trees mentioned are, the 

 almond, the apricot, the pomegranate, Cistus salviaefolius, rose- 

 mary, thyme, white jasmine, partium yunceum, the fig, the 

 oriental plane, the elm, the sweet bay, the common black mul- 

 berry, the stone pine, the spruce fir, the Cupressus sempervirens, 

 and the savin. In his PIcrbal of 1562, he adds the peach, the 

 walnut, and the rue. In 1568 he adds the lavender. It appears 

 that foreign trees and shrubs were not altogether neglected 

 in the royal gardens, in the time of Henry VIII. ; since, in a 

 survey of the royal palace at Nonsuch, in Surrey, in the suc- 

 ceeding century, there were, in the wilderness, lilacs, lime trees, 

 yews, junipers, and hollies. L'Obel, who published his Adver- 

 saria in 1570, includes the Jasminum fruticans, the Pistacia 

 officinarum, and the Genista *Sc6rpius, among his woody plants. 

 Tusser, in 1573, mentions the quince and the Damask rose. 

 Grindal, Bishop of London, is said by Fuller to have intro- 

 duced the German tamarisk, about the year 1 560 ; but, according 

 to Camden and Hakluyt, better authorities, about 1582. Grindal 

 was visited at Fulham by the queen, who complained that the 

 bishop had so surrounded his house with trees, that she could 

 not enjoy the prospect from her chamber windows. Such ex- 

 cellent grapes were produced at Fulham by this prelate, that 

 some were sent every year to the queen. (Strype's Life of 

 Grindal.) 



Wimbledon House, which was rebuilt by Sir Thomas Cecil 

 in 1588, and surveyed by order of the parliament in 1649, was 

 celebrated for its gardens and trees. In the several gardens, 

 which consisted of mazes, wildernesses, knots, alleys, &c., are 

 mentioned a great variety of fruit trees, and some shrubs, par- 

 ticularly " a faire bay tree," valued at I/., and " one very faire 

 tree, called the Irish arbutis, very lovely to look upon, and 

 worth \L 105." (Lysons, i. 397.) Gerard, the first edition of whose 

 Catalogue is dated 1596, appears to have had several foreign trees 

 and shrubs in his garden in Holborn; and, among others, 

 althaea frutex, the laburnum, the Judas tree, six different kinds 

 of roses, the laurustinus, the Z)iospyros .Lotus, the white mul- 

 berry, the nettle tree, the pinaster, the arbor vitae, the yucca, 

 and several others, as may be seen by the list below. 



D 3 



