The Earliest Gardener's Cal 



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at Chelsea, as comparatively late as 1685, 

 was struck by the warming apparatus used 

 in the conservatory there, as an interesting 

 innovation. The utmost that our prede- 

 cessors set themselves, as a rule, to achieve, 

 was the exclusion of the cold or damp air, 

 and the frost, by a very experimental pro- 

 cess described in a future section. 



Richard Weston, in the Gentlemarfs Maga- 

 zine for 1804, terms Evelyn's Kalendarium 

 Hortense (1664) the earliest gardener's calen- 

 dar ; but such is not really the case ; for 

 Bacon, in his essay Of Gardens, has in some 

 sense and measure anticipated him, and set 

 forth the plants and flowers which were then 

 in perfection throughout the year. Bacon 

 says : " I do hold it in the royal ordering of 

 gardens, there ought to be gardens for all the 

 months of the year, in which severally things 

 of beauty may be then in season ; " and then 

 he leads us through the months, specifying 

 the flora of each with an affectionate minute- 

 ness, which augments, if possible, our 

 admiration of his versatility and grasp. He 

 concludes his rehearsal thus: "These par- 



