•^ Spring Flowering TSulbs <$£ 



to Wimbledon and planted it herself in her garden. Mr. 

 Trower was given a slip from this bush, which he, like 

 George Eliot, planted himself, and he was kind enough 

 to give me a slip from the bush. I in turn carefully- 

 planted it, and when large enough I will joyfully give 

 slips to anyone who cares for them. 



I am always hoping some day to light on the ' gilded 

 rosemary ' (presumably a variegated rosemary) which 

 Parkinson mentions in his Paradisus. It was evidently 

 grown in England in Elizabethan and Stuart days, for 

 Parkinson describes it thus : ' This Rosemary dirrereth 

 not from the former, in forme or manner of growing, 

 nor in the forme or colour of the flower, but only in 

 the leaves, which are edged or striped, or pointed with 

 a faire gold yellow colour, which so continueth all 

 the yeare throughout, yet fresher and fairer in Summer 

 than in Winter ; for then it will looke of a deader 

 colour, yet so, that it may be discerned to be of two 

 colours, green and yellow.' Parkinson is always careful 

 to state when he knows a plant only by repute, for of the 

 double-flowered rosemary he says : * This I have only 

 by relation, which I pray you accept, untill I may by 

 •sight better inform you.' 



Rosemary was probably first introduced into England 

 by the Romans, but there has always been the 

 tradition that it was re-introduced by Queen Philippa of 

 Hainault. In the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, 

 there is a most interesting MS., translated from the 

 original (written by ' a clerk of the school of Salerno '), 

 which was sent to Queen Philippa by her mother ' the 

 Countess of Henaud,' and the translator (' danyel bain ') 

 states that rosemary was unknown in England until the 



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