LITERATURE OF GARDENING. 539 



front. Numerous works, some illustrated, have been pub- 

 lished on the Rose, and scarcely any branch of gardening 

 has escaped elucidation either by books or pamphlets. 

 " Le Bon Jardinier," which is published yearly, is a work 

 of considerable merit. There are also horticultural libraries 

 in Paris and horticultural societies at Paris, Lyons, and 

 Lille, which publish journals recording their transactions. 

 The "Revue Horticole" and the "Journal des Roses "are 

 beautiful works now in course of publication in France, 

 and small books on flowers and fruits are continually 

 issuing from the press. 



Germany is the last European country we think it 

 necessary to notice in regard to the literature of gardening, 

 and German works on the subject are to a great extent 

 translations or compilations from other sources. 



We now come to the literature of gardening in Eng- 

 land. The earliest works I have on trees and plants are 

 the " Ortus Sanitatis" printed at the close of the fifteenth 

 century and Macer's "Herbal," the first printed edition of 

 which appeared according to Pritzel in 1487. My copy of 

 the latter is in Latin verse, but I have seen although I do 

 not possess an English translation of it. Both these works 

 are in the character of Herbals and are illustrated with 

 rude cuts of the plants they describe. 



Dr Pulteney in his "Sketches of Botany " states that 

 there are several manuscripts on trees and plants in the 

 Bodleian Library which were written before the inven- 

 tion of printing, or at least before its introduction to 

 England, and there are several manuscripts in various 

 other libraries. 



Johnson in his " History of Gardening" tells us that the 

 author of the first bcok written on the cultivation of the 

 soil in England was Walter de Henley in the reign of 

 Edward the Third (1327-1377). In a translation of this 

 work by Elizabeth Lamond (1890) it is stated that the 

 earliest edition was the English translation issued by 

 Wynkyn de Worde immediately followed both in the M.S. 



