XIV. 



MARKET GARDENS IN THE SUBURBS OF 

 LONDON TESTIMONY OF AN ITALIAN 

 VISITOR IN 1614 NURSERIES AND 

 GROUNDS AT OLD BROMPTON, FULHAM, 

 BATTERSEA, AND DEPTFORD. 



|N Italian, named Giacomo Castel- 

 vetri, who was in London in 1614, 

 wrote a species of Herbal, still 

 in MS. in the British Museum among 

 the bocks of Sir Joseph Banks, in which 

 he introduces us to a knowledge, which 

 we should not otherwise have possessed, of 

 the condition of market gardening near 

 London in the reign of James I. He 

 does not tell us much; but what informa- 

 tion he supplies is especially valuable. 

 The asparagus, he says, was very small 

 and very dear in London, its culture not 



