KITCHEN-GARDENS 213 



could not devote much time to literary work until longer 

 days began ? 



Garden craft in all usual routine work has altered 

 astonishingly little since those days. In pictures we 

 recognise many operations which are still done in the same 

 way. We have fewer superstitions now, for these have 

 passed away together with some of those delightful names 

 of flowers that were taken from festivals of the Church. 

 For instance, " Our Lady's Bunch of Keys " is no longer 

 connected with cowslips ; nor is " Our Lady's Workbag " 

 used to designate a calceolaria ; nor " fior de Santa 

 Caterina" remembered as descriptive of a daffodil. It 

 would be interesting to see if Petrarch was right in his 

 opinion that anything planted upon February 6th, if it 

 fell under a good moon, will flourish. Another idea 

 agreed to by most was, that trees abound in sap at the 

 full of the moon, and are driest or freest from sap during 

 her last quarter ; also that plants usually grow faster 

 during the increase of the moon than during its decrease. 

 In agreement with this we find Thomas Tusser's remarks 

 written about 1550 : 



" Sow peas on and beans in the wane of the moon ; 

 Who soweth them sooner he soweth too soon. 

 That they with the planet may rest and rise, 

 And flourish with bearing most plentifully wise." 



Other garden superstitions can be traced to the influence 

 of the Church, because monastic gardens were the chief 

 ones in the Middle Ages, being sanctuaries of peace and 

 quiet, where turmoil and din of war scarcely penetrated. 

 Thus we learn the old saying : u Put in rosemary cuttings 

 on Good Friday, and they are bound to grow." So, too, 

 many garden-craft ideas crept into England from far 

 distant lands, introduced by emissaries sent by the Pope, 

 and thus came ideas of Italian vine-culture, with accounts 

 of plants not indigenous to our country. Sometimes an old 



