34 



Systemae Agriculturae, being the Mystery of Husbandry 

 Discovered; folio, 1681. 



LEONARD MEAGER'S Portrait perhaps we may not be very 

 desirous to discover, when he tells his readers, neither to 

 " sow, plant, nor graft, or meddle with any thing relating 

 to gardening, when the sun or moon is eclipsed, or on that 

 day, nor when the moon is afflicted by either of the unfortu- 

 nate planets, viz. Mars or Saturn. 3 '* His English Gardner, 

 in 4 to. with cuts, came out in 1683; the ninth edition came 

 out in 1699, 4to. ; it contains several clearly pointed plates 

 of knots, or parterres. 



Meager also published The New Art of Gardening, with 

 the Gardener's Almanack; 8vo. 1697; and 



The Mystery of Husbandry; 12mo. 1699. 



* Tusser seems somewhat of Meager 's opinion : 



Sow peason and beans, in the wane of the moon, 

 Who soweth them sooner, he soweth too soon; 

 That they with the planet may rest and arise, 

 And flourish, with bearing most plentiful! wise. 



The celebrated Quintinye says, " I solemnly declare, that after a dili- 

 gent observation of the moon's changes for thirty years together, and an en- 

 quiry whether they had any influence in gardening, the affirmative of which 

 has been so long established among us, I perceive it was no weightier than 

 old wives' tales." 



The moon (says Mr. Mavor) having an influence on the tides and the 

 weather, she was formerly supposed to extend her power over all nature. 



There is a treatise, by Claude Gadrois, on the Influences des Astres. 

 Surely this merits perusal, when the Nouv. Diet. Hist, thus speaks of him : 

 " II etoit ami du celebre Arnauld et meritoit de 1'etre par lajustesse de son 

 esprit et la purete de ses mceurs, par la bonte de son caractere et par la 

 droiture de son coeur." 



The following wise experiment occurs in an ancient book on husbandry ; 

 but if the two parties there mentioned had lived with Leonard Meager, one 



