258 A Century of Science 



of rare love and knowledge of Nature is marked 

 success in inducing her to bring forth her most 

 exquisite creations, the flowers. As an expert in 

 horticulture Parkman achieved celebrity. His gar- 

 den and greenhouse had extraordinary things to 

 show. As he pointed out to me on my first 

 visit to them, he followed Darwinian methods and 

 originated new varieties of plants. The Lilium 

 Parkmani has long been famous among florists. 

 He was also eminent in the culture of roses, and 

 author of a work entitled " The Book of Roses," 

 which was published in 1866. He was President 

 of the Horticultural Society, and at one time 

 Professor of Horticulture in Harvard University. 

 There can be no doubt as to the beneficial effects 

 of these pursuits. It is wholesome to be out of 

 doors with spade and trowel and sprinkler ; there 

 is something tonic in the aroma of fresh damp 

 loam ; and nothing is more restful to the soul than 

 daily sympathetic intercourse with flowering plants. 

 It was surely here that Parkman found his best 

 medicine. 



When he entered, in 1851, upon his great work 

 on " France and England in the New World," he 

 had before him the task " of tracing out, collecting, 

 indexing, arranging, and digesting a great mass of 

 incongruous material scattered on both sides of the 



