Queries atid Answers to Queries. 44-7 



his life looking out for this variety, without ever being able to meet with it; 

 and yet, that it was formerly a very common inhabitant of our gardens, is 

 unquestionable. It is mentioned by Gerarde and Parkinson, under the name 

 of Double Paigle or Paigles, the old name for cowslip, and figured in the 

 works of both these authors, the former of whom says it "is so commonly 

 known, that it needeth no description." Our English gardens, it seems, 

 were formerly rich in the varieties of primroses and cowslips, Parkinson 

 begins the 35th chapter of his Paradisiis, by saying, " We have so great a 

 variety of primroses and cowslips of our own country breeding, that strangers 

 being much delighted with them, have been often furnished into divers 

 countries, to their good content." The rude wooden cuts which illustrate 

 the old herbals, present us with many singular varieties of these plants, 

 which, I believe, are now quite unknown to modern cultivators. Among 

 those which, it is supposed, have been long since lost to our gardens, may 

 be mentioned a curious primrose, of which Gerarde gives the following and 

 amusing account : — " There is a strange primrose found in a wood in York- 

 shire, growing wild, by the travel and industry of a learned gentleman of Lan- 

 cashire, called Master Thomas Hesketh, and a diligent searcher of simples, 

 who hath not only brought to light this amiable and pleasant primrose, but 

 many others likewise, never before his time remembered or found out." I 

 have been told that " Master Hesketh's Primrose " had long been an object 

 of fruitless desire and enquiry with the late Mr. Curtis, author of Flora 

 Londinensis and the Botanical Magazine, who had, in vain, sought for it in 

 various parts of the country ; in the former of those works, indeed, he 

 speaks of the variety as deserving of culture for its singularity. The double 

 cowslip, once so common in our gardens, I suspect, may have shared the 

 same fate as " Master Hesketh's Primrose." Like Mr. Curtis, I should be 

 well pleased to see them restored to our collections. Some friends of my 

 own, I have understood, while gathering cowslips in a large meadow in 

 Staffordshire, once met with a double one, of which they plucked the 

 flower; but, failing to mark the spot, were unable to find the root after- 

 wards, nor could they, by the most diligent search in succeeding seasons, 

 ever meet with the variety again. 



I have to apologise for straying so far from the subject I commenced 

 with ; and will only observe further, that, by sowing the seed of the wild 

 cowslip in the garden, a number of varieties will be produced, some of 

 which have flowers of a beautiful bright red colour. May not this process be 

 the first step towards the formation of our garden polyanthus ; if that be 

 not, as is generally supposed, a variety of the primrose rather than of the 

 cowslip ? — W.T. Bree. Allesley Rector^/, July 9. 1828. 



Number of Men requisite to keep a Garden in order. — A correspondent 

 wishes to know how many men he should regularl}' employ, to keep in good 

 order a gentleman's kitchen-garden, consisting of 2 acres, with 420 yards of 

 walling, covered with fruit trees ; also, the same quantity of pleasure- 

 ground, &c. &c. ; and whether his men have any right to work before or 

 after their regular hours, of six in the morning and six in the evening, in 

 watering the gai'den, &c., without being paid for the same. — Shipston, 

 May 21. 1828. 



Pine-apples. — I wish J. Housman (p. 186.) had answered my query 

 more fully respecting pines. He is quite wrong in supposing that I prefer 

 the Providence ; I merely stated that I thought it would attain the largest 

 size. There are many pines which bear a very high character among the 

 gardeners in this neighbourhood ; for instance, the Enville, the Globe, and 

 the Otaheite ; yet these are not even mentioned in the first or second 

 editions of your Encyclopcedia, or in the Treatise on the Pine by a M.H.S. 

 Suppose J. H. were confined to the cultivation of four sorts only, which 

 would they be? or if he were confined to one sort, would he prefer the 

 Black Jamaica to the Queen ? I have seen a variety of the Queen with a very 



