640 Arboricultural Notices. 



Argyle, on the 15th of April, 1761, died as he sat in his chair, my honoured 

 friend and great patron of all planters, aged seventy-nine, a very hearty man 

 of that age. In the year 1723-4', he took in a part of Hounslow Heath, to 

 add to a little farm, and began planting by raising all sorts of trees and 

 shrubs from seeds from our northern colonies, and all other parts of the 

 world ; he had the largest collection in England, and happily lived to see 

 to what a surprising maturity they had arrived in thirty-seven or thirty- 

 eight years. Great was his benevolence, for he gave to every one to en- 

 courage planting, and raised plants on purpose to oblige the curious at this 

 seat of his called Whitton. He had a fine collection of rare birds and 

 beasts ; he was a great chemist, natural philosopher, mechanic, astronomer, 

 and mathematician. He was a wonderful amiable man, plain in his dress, 

 without pride or vain ostentation ; his library was scarcely to be equalled. 

 He was forty-one years old when he began to sow seeds for his planta- 

 tions.'" (//. C. p. 32.) 



Platanus orientalis, said to have been first planted at Lord Verulam's seat, 

 now Lord Grimston's, near St. Albans, (H. C. p. ^l.) 



Peter CoUinson, F.R.S. See Arb. Brit. vol. i. p. 34. " Mr. Collinson re- 

 sided at Peckham from his infancy, till he removed to Mill Hill, after which 

 it appears not unlikely that his brother lived in the old family house ; and 

 as Mill Hill, prior to the removal, belonged to his fathei"-in-law (Mr. Russell), 

 he may probably have enjoyed the use of both gardens for a much longer 

 period than he occupied them. Dr. Fothergill, in his Memoir of Collinson, 

 says: ' It was a favourable circumstance to himself, that he was in partner- 

 ship with his brother James Collinson, in a business that did not always 

 require their attention together. They lived in great harmony, and reci- 

 procally afforded to each other opportunities for their respective pursuits. 

 Both, however, had a strong relish for horticulture and planting, and both 

 had acquired a just conception of rural elegance.'" {H. C. p. 42.) 



Punica Granatum. " Mem. ' Oct. 2. 1767. On south walls at a gentleman's 

 garden at Parson's Green, and at Gray's Nursery Garden near the same 

 place, I saw three pomegranate trees, full of fruit, without any covering or 

 art, of a beautiful red colour ; I measured one fruit 9 in. round ; there 

 were many more near the same size, and some less. I eat one little in- 

 ferior to those brought from abroad ; perfection can't be expected in our 

 climate, but the novelty and beauty of the scarlet blossoms and fruit deserve 

 the best south (or south a point or two to the east) wall in every curious 

 garden. In the years 1759 and 1760 these trees had fruit on them ; 1758 

 no fruit.' In other memoranda the pomegranate is mentioned to have 

 fruited at Mill Hill, and that 1757 was ' remarkable for plenty of nuts, 

 peaches, and nectarines, and all sorts of plums, though few apricots, and 

 that in 1758 there was great plenty of nuts and apples.' ' Oct, 10. 1765, 

 visited my friend Mrs. Gaskry, at Parson's Green, near Fnlham ; this long 

 hot dry year has had remarkable good effects on all wall fruits ; apricots, 

 peaches, and nectarines ripened much earlier, and have been excellent, but 

 the most remarkable was the plenty of pomegranates ; near two dozen on 

 one tree, of a remarkable size, and fine ruddy complexion, of the size of 

 middling oranges, and one that was split shewed the redness and ripeness 

 within.'" (i7. C. p. 43.) 



Robinia hispida. " Mem. ' Sir John CoUiton, at Exmouth, one of the pro- 

 prietors of Carolina, had sent him from thence the first red acacia, anno 

 1741 ;' and from his inability to find a plant in the neighbourhood of 

 London, in 1748, Catesby's figure appears to have been taken from a dried 

 specimen." (H. C. p. 46.) 



Salisbiina adiantifolia. " Mem. ' June 9. 1767, Mr. Gordon, senior and 

 junior, dined at Mill Hill, and brought me in a pot what Dr. Ksempfer, in 

 his Amcenitates Exoticde, p. 812., names Ginko vel Ginau, arbor nucifera 

 folio adiantino. I planted it against a south wall; stood very well all the 

 last winter, which was very severe, 1767-8, and thrives finely.' When I 

 visited Ridgway House, at the beginning of the present century, if I am not 



