174 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



I wish I were better able to serve you either in these bagatelles 

 or more weighty occasions : I should with great alacrity and 

 satisfaction, I assure you, lay hold on all opportunityes to 

 express myself e how really I am 



" Yo' affectionate faithful! servant, 



" Tho. Hanmer. 



" My wife and my selfe humbly present o' services to your 

 worthy lady, and your selfe, as also to my noble friend S' 

 Richard Browne. I convey this letter and the box to you by 

 my son Tom Hanmer, who is constantly at his chamber in 

 ffig-tree Court in the Inner Temple, and can send your com- 

 mands to mee at any tyme. You will find in the box some 

 very good bear's ears seed, which you know better to sow 

 and order than I can direct." 



Other flowers mentioned as rarities by Gerard and Parkinson 

 had become very generally known. Among the lilies this is 

 noticeable : " The red lily^ is a flower so vulgar, every country 

 woman can form an idea of it in a stranger's head, by their 

 rustick descriptions. . . . Next comes martagans, a rambling 

 flower onely fit for flower pots or chimneys, and to be planted 

 in by borders or under hedges.'"^ Carnations were still popular 

 flowers : " Caryophyllus hortensis called July flowers, and are 

 indeed summer glory as Tulips the pride of the spring . . . the 

 nobler sorts which are called Dutch July flowers or more 

 vulgarly carnations raised from seeds in the Netherlands and 

 other parts adjoining to the sea, and thence conveyed to us."^ 



The sensitive plant, " Planta Mimosa, the sensible or humble 

 plant," was a new acquisition in Charles the First's time. The 

 seeds were " yearly brought out of America."^ This was 

 probably one of the tender annuals, for which the hot bed 

 would be prepared. Another plant grown in this way was 

 Tobacco : " Sow on a hot bed as early as you can after Christ- 

 mas," writes Sharrock ; " then plant under South Wall or 

 otherwise with hedges or fences of Reed to be defended from 



^ =Lilium canadense vubrum, or L. croccum, or L. pompomiiitn. 

 2 Gilbert, Florist's Vade-Mecimi. ^ Ibid. * Rea. 



