SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 175 



sharp weather." Jacobcea marina { = Sprekelia formosissima) 

 came from North America in 1658. Jasmine ( = odor atissi mum) 

 from Madeira about the same time, and many other plants 

 were introduced. 



So much is done to encourage the improvement of fiowers 

 nowadays, by shows, competitions, and prizes, that it is 

 diificult to reahze that the efforts made in that direction long 

 ago were spontaneous. The earliest record I have noticed of 

 encouragement of the growth of flowers (except, of course, 

 gratuities for presents of fiowers at a much earlier date) is 

 mentioned by Pulteney:^ " Mr. Ray informs us that the people 

 of Norwich had long excelled in the culture and production of 

 fine flowers, and that in those days (c. 1660) the florists held 

 their annual feasts, and crowned the best flower with a premium 

 as a present." 



The introduction of foreign tender plants led to the gradual 

 growth of conservatories and hothouses. In a previous chapter 

 some hints Sir Hugh Piatt gave for the protection of delicate 

 plants during the winter were noticed. In the second part 

 of his work, first printed in 1660, he not only thinks of pro- 

 tection, but has also a feeble idea of forcing, an art which did 

 not develop until many years later. He writes, " Quaere, 

 If pease, beans, pompeons, musk mellons, and other pulse seeds, 

 put in small pots . . . and placed in a gentle stove or some 

 convenient place aptly warmed by a fire and then sown in 

 March or April would they come up sooner ?" Again, he says: 

 " Why not utilize a kitchen fire planting them (i.e., apricots 

 or vines) near a warm wall, or brewers, diers, soap boilers or 

 refiners of sugar, who have continual fire, may easily convey 

 the heat of steam of their fires (which are now utterly lost) 

 into some private room adjoining wherein to bestow their fruit 

 trees." 



Attention was now turned to growing oranges, and the 

 houses built for the shelter of these trees are the earliest kind 

 of conservatory. Very far removed from the modern glass 

 structure, they were like large rooms with big windows and a 

 stove or open fire to warm it in the coldest time, or " in default 

 of stoves or raised hearths you must attemper the air with pans 

 ^ Sketches of Botany, 1790. 



