84 HISTORY OF GARDENING. PART I. 



ease, and a certain degree of refinement. A taste for fine flowers has existed in Holland 

 and the Netherlands from a very remote period, and was early introduced into England ; 

 but when that taste found its way to Scotland and Ireland, is much less certain. 



SUBSECT. 1. Gardening in England, in respect to the Culture of Flowers and the 

 Establishment of Botanic Gardens. 



371. The taste for florists' flowers, in England, is generally supposed to have been 

 brought over from Flanders with our worsted manufactures, during the persecutions of 

 Philip II. ; and the cruelties of the Duke of Alva, in 1567, was the occasion of our re- 

 ceiving, through the Flemish weavers, gillyflowers, carnations, and provins roses. But 

 flowers and flowering shrubs were known and prized even in Chaucer's time, as appears 

 from a well-known passage of that poet. An Italian poet published, in 1586, a volume 

 of poems, one of which is On the Royal Garden ; from this poem it would appear that 

 Queen Elizabeth was attached to the culture of flowers, but few are named either in these 

 poems, or in the description of Theobald's. Parterres seem to have been introduced in 

 the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, and also the tulip, and damask and musk 

 roses. Gerrard, who published his herbal three years before, mentions James Garnet, 

 " a London apothecary, a principal collector and propagator of tulips, for twenty years 

 bringing forth every season new plants of sundry colors not before seen, all which to de- 

 scribe particularly were to roll Sisyphus's stone, or number the sands." 



372. One of the earliest notices which ive have of a botanic garden in England is that of 

 the Duke of Somerset, at Sion House, in the beginning of this century. It was placed 

 under the superintendence of Dr. Turner, whom Dr. Pulteney considers as the father of 

 English botany. Turner had studied at Bologna and at Pisa, where, as we have already 

 seen (91.), botanic gardens were first formed. After being some years with the Duke 

 of Somerset, he retired from Sion House to Wells, where he had a rich garden, and died 

 there in 1560. About this time existed the botanic gardens of Edward Saintloo, 11 

 Somersetshire, James Coel, at Highgate, J. Nasmyth, surgeon to James I., and John 

 de Franqueville, merchant in London. From the care of the latter, Parkinson observes, 

 " is sprung the greatest store that is now flourishing in this kingdom." Gerrard had a 

 fine garden in Holborn, in the middle of the sixteenth century, of which there is a cata- 

 logue in the British Museum, dated 1590. This garden was eulogised by Dr. Boleyn 

 and others his contemporaries. Gerrard mentions Nicholas Lete, a merchant in London, 

 " greatly in love with rare and fair flowers, for which he doth carefully send into Syria, 

 having a servant there, at Aleppo, and in many other countries ; for which myself, and 

 the whole land are much bound unto him." The same author also gives due honor to 

 Sir Walter Raleigh, Lord Edward Zouch, the patron of Lobel, who brought plants and 

 seeds from Constantinople, and to Lord Hudson, Lord High Chamberlain of England, 

 who, he says, " is worthy of triple honor for his care in getting, as also for his keeping 

 such rare and curious things from the farthest parts of the world." (Pulteney 's Sketches, 125.) 



373. In the beginning oft/ie seventeenth century, flowers and curious plants appear to 

 have been very generally cultivated. Platt's Paradise of Flora, which is the first book 

 that treats expressly on flowers, appeared in 1600. Parkinson published his Paradisus 

 in 1629. " A modern florist," observes Dr. Pulteney, " wholly unacquainted with the 

 state of the art at the time Parkinson wrote, would perhaps be surprised to find that his 

 predecessors could enumerate, besides 16 described as distinct species, 1 20 varieties of 

 the tulip, 60 anemones, more than 90 of the narcissus tribe, 50 hyacinths, 50 carnations, 

 20 pinks, 30 crocuses, and above 40 of the Iris genus." (Sketches, &c. vol. ii. 123.) The 

 laurel, or bay-cherry, was then very rare, and considered as a tender plant, being de- 

 fended " from the bitterness of the winter by casting a blanket over the top thereof," and 

 the larch-tree was only reared up as a curiosity. Greenhouse-plants were placed in 

 cellars, where they lost their leaves, but those of such as survived shot out again in spring 

 when removed to the open air. 



Flowers were much cultivated in Norwich, from the time of the Flemish weavers settling there. Sir J. 

 R Smith (Linn. Trans. voL ii. p. 296:) mentions a play called Rhodon and Iris, which was acted at the 

 florists' feast at Norwich, in 16.jT7 ; a proof that the culture of flowers was in great estimation there at that 

 time ; and in 1671 Evelyn mentions Sir Thomas Brown's garden there, as containing a paradise of rarities, 

 and the gardens of all the inhabitants as full of excellent flowers. From Norwich the love of flowers 

 seems to have spread to other manufacturing establishments ; and the taste still continues popular, not 

 only there, but among the weavers in Spitalflelds, Manchester, Bolton, and most of the commercial towns 

 in Lancashire, and many in Cheshire, Derbyshire, and other adjoining counties. A florists' society is 

 established in almost every town and village in the northern district. These societies have annual shows*, 

 as in London and Norwich ; and a book, called The Flower Book, is published annually in Manchester, 

 containing an account of their transactions, the prizes which have been given, and the new flowers which 

 have been originated. 



Ham House, the Duke of Lauderdale's, had famous parterres and orangeries at this time. Sir Henry 

 Capell had a very fine orangery and myrtilleum at Kew ; and Lady Clarendon, who, Evelyn informs us", 

 was well skilled in flowers, had an ample collection at Swallowfield in Berkshire. 



In the garden of William Coyte, of Stubbers, in Essex, the yucca blossomed in 1604, for the first time in 

 England. (Lobel, Hist. Plant.} 



The place of Royal Herbalist was created by Charles I. ; and Parkinson was appointed to fill it. Queen 



