178 



HORTICULTURE. 



Sir Hugh 

 Plate. 



"Parkinson. 



rare. With the exception of the first mentioned, they 

 ""V* ' are, generally speaking, little more than compilations 

 from Varro, Columella, Palludius, Cornelius Agrippa, 

 Cardanus, and some old French and Italian writers. In 

 Elizabeth's days, carnations were, it is said, first cultiva- 

 ted by the Flemings at Norwich, and nearly at the same 

 time tulip roots were brought from Vienna to England. 

 Orange and lemon trees now became known. The 

 Cemde. Herball, or Historic of Plants," by John Gerarde, first 

 appeared in 1597; and a second edition, enlarged and 

 improved by Johnston, came out about forty years af- 

 terwards. It may, in passing, be remarked as some- 

 what curious, that so distinguished a writer as Gerarde, 

 and a piece so well known and frequently quoted as his 

 " Herball," should not be mentioned by Professor Mar- 

 tyn, in his chronological list of authors and books on 

 gardening. Towards the close of the l6th century, Sir 

 Hugh Platt published " The Jewel-House of Arte and 

 Nature," a little book not destitute of merit ; and early 

 in the following century appeared a posthumous work 

 of his, called " The Garden of Eden." 



5. A fine garden was formed at Theobald's, near 

 Waltham Abbey, by James VI. (I. of England). In 

 the year 1040, about thirty years after the formation of 

 this garden, it was described by Mandelslo * as a large 

 square, surrounded with fruit-tree walls, containing al- 

 so espalier trees on some sort of trellises, and ornamen- 

 tal arches of trees ; besides a parterre for flowers. 



C. His son Charles I. seems to have patronized gar- 

 dening. He appointed the cekbrated Parkinson his 

 herbarist. In 1629, appeared the first edition of this 

 man's great work in folio, entitled, " Parodist in sole Pa- 

 radisus terrestris ; or a Garden of all sortes of pleasant 

 Flowers, with a Kitchen Garden of all manner of Herbs 

 and Roots, and an Orchard of all sort of Fruit-bearing 

 Trees/' '&c. This may be considered as the first gene- 

 ral book of English gardening possessing the character 

 of originality. From his lists of flowers, shrubs, and 

 fruits, the state of our gardens at that period may be 

 pretty accurately guessed. The laurel or bay-cherry 

 was then very rare, and considered as a tender plant, 

 being defended " from the bitterness of the winter, by 

 casting a blanket over the top thereof;" and the larch 

 tree was only nursed up as a curiosity. For the culture 

 of melons, he recommends an open hot-bed on a sloping 

 bank, covering the melons occasionally with straw, the 

 method practised in the north of France at this day. Cau- 

 liflowers, celery, and finochio, were then great rarities. 

 Virginia potatoes (our common sort) were then rare ; but 

 Canada potatoes (our Jerusalem artichoke) were in com- 

 mon use. The variety of fruits described, or at least men- 

 tioned, appears very great. Of apples there are 58 sorts ; 

 of pears, 64 ; plums, 6l ; peaches, 21 ; nectarines, 5 ; 

 apricots, 6 ; cherries, no fewer than 36 ; grape vines, 

 23 ; figs, 3 ; with quinces, medlars, almonds, walnuts, 

 filberds, and the common small fruits. The number of 

 approved apples, pears, plums, and cherries, at the pre- 

 sent day, is not nearly so large. Of florists flowers, he 

 mentions about 50 varieties of hyacinth ; above CO one- 

 monies ; but only 20 ranunculuses. 



7. In the time of the Commonwealth, Walter Blith 

 Blith. produced rather an ingenious work, with the quaint 



title of " English Improver improved, or the Survey of 

 Austen. Husbandry surveyed ;" and Ralph Austen published a 

 " Treatise of Fruit Trees," also a book of merit. 



8. After the Restoration, Charles II. brought over Le 

 Notre, the favourite gardener of Louis XIV. and de- 



signer of the gardens of Versailles, to lay out and plant History. 

 St James's' and Greenwich Parks, which still remain -" "Y~~ p/ 

 very creditable monuments of his taste. Rose, who was 

 gardener to Charles, had studied the art in France It 

 is remarked by the Honourable Daines Barrington, 

 that at the installation dinner at Windsor, 23d April 

 1667, cherries, strawberries, and ice-creams were pro- 

 duced, shewing that the king possessed both hot-houses 

 and ice-houses, and that his gardener was an adept at 

 forcing, for strawberries require considerable nicety of 

 management. 



9. From about the middle to the end of the 17th Evrlyn. 

 century, tho well known John Evelyn, Esq. was the 

 chief promoter of almost all horticultural improvement?, 

 forming an era in the history of British planting and 

 gardening. Soon after returning from his travels on 



the continent, he translated " Le Jardinier Fratifoif, 

 instructing how to cultivate all sorts of fruit-trees and 

 herbs for the garden.' 1 In 1 664 appeared his celebra- 

 ted " Sylva, or a Discourse of Forest Trees ; with Po- 

 mona, an appendix concerning fruit-trees ; Acetaria, a 

 discussion of sallets," &c. His " Calcndariitm Hurtcnsc, 

 or Gardener's Almanack, directing what he is to do 

 monthly throughout the year," was also at first added 

 to the Syiva, but was soon afterwards published sepa- 

 rately, and went through many editions. This useful 

 manual, laid the foundation of the successive Gardener's 

 Calendars which have been published by Miller, Aber- 

 crombie. and Nicol. In 1693, his translation of Quin- 

 tinye's " Complete Gardener" made its appearance, in 

 folio ; and, six years afterwards, he ushered into the 

 world an octavo edition, " abridged and improved by 

 George London and Henry Wise," two of the most dis- 

 tinguished gardeners and nurserymen of their day, and 

 whose names have been consecrated by Addison in his 

 paper on gardening in the " Spectator," (No. 4-77-) 

 They had both been apprentices of old Rose, and 

 succeeded him in the office of royal gardener. They 

 converted an old gravel-pit in Kensington Gardens into 

 a picturesque hollow of foliage, producing an effect in 

 gardening which the critic compares to the sublime in 

 epic poetry, and exclaims, " Wise and London are our 

 heroic poets !" It is curious, that while the labours of 

 Evelyn justly placed him at the head of the improvers 

 of his time, he should have missed an opportunity, fair- 

 ly placed within his reach, of handing down his name as 

 the greatest horticultural benefactor of Britain. In March 

 1662, it was proposed to the Royal Society to recom- 

 mend the cultivating of potatoes with the view of pre- 

 venting the recurrence of famine; Evelyn was particular- 

 ly consulted, and was requested to mention the proposal 

 at the end of his Sylva, then announced for publication. 

 He does not seem to have complied with this request, 

 nor to have paid any attention to the culture of the plant : 

 he merely mentions it in his Acetaria, and dismisses it 

 with apparent indifference. This American plant, how- 

 ever, has proved a treasure to this country, " compared 

 with which the mines of Potosi are worthless." 



10. During the period of which we are speaking, se- 

 veral books on gardening came out, some of them coun- 

 tenanced by Evelyn, and others in which he took no 

 share. One of the earliest of these was the translation 

 of an essay on the management of fruit-trees, by the 



Sieur Le Gendre, curate of Henonville, " wherein is Lc Genctre. 

 treated of nurseries, wall-fruits, hedges of fruit-trees, 

 dwarf-trees, high standers," &c. He wrote from the 

 experience of a long life, the leisure of which had been 



Travels by John Albert de Mandelslo, near the end. In the English translation, the account of King James's garden, Sic. is 

 omitted, as uninteresting ! 



