GARDENS OF CELEBRITIES 
“* Systema Horticultural,” published in 1677, was one of the 
earliest manuals for the guidance of those laying out and culti- 
vating a garden; this is a rash statement, for we have only to 
refer to Shakespeare again, to disprove it. 
In The Winter's Tale, Perdita, in the Shepherd’s Cottage, 
bestows upon her foster-father’s guests, flowers cottage-grown to 
suit all ages: of ‘“‘ Carnations and streak’d gillyflowers,” she says, 
“* our rustic garden’s barren,”’ but adds; “‘ Here’s flowers for you ”’ 
{addressing the Greybeards) : 
‘** Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram, 
The marigold that goes to bed wi’ the sun 
And with him rises weeping, these are flowers 
Of middle summer, and I think they are given 
To men of middle age on 
Then turning to Florizel (and others present), she says : 
‘** I would I had some flowers o’ the Spring that might 
Become your time of day, and yours, and yours 
he, BR RR SW es Oh, Proserpina, 
For the flowers now that frighted thou let’st fall 
From Dis’s waggon ! daffodils, 
That come before the swallow dares, and take 
The winds of March with beauty,—violets dim, 
But sweeter than the lids of Juno’s eyes— 
Or Cytherea’s breath ; pale primroses, 
That die unmarried, ere they can behold 
Bright Phoebus in his strength—a malady 
Most incident to maids; bold oxlips and 
The crown imperial, lilies of all kinds, 
* The flower-de-luce being one!” 
It is clear that Perdita describes here flowers that in their 
season must have been blowing in her cottage garden ready to 
her hand ; and that Shakespeare loved such flowers well, because 
they were of English growth, for he knew nothing of foreign flora, 
there being no shadow of evidence that he ever crossed the Channel, 
or even went nearer to it than Dover. There, as everybody knows, 
is a cliff which bears his name, but since Edgar in King Lear 
exaggerates its height in his description of it, it is questionable 
whether Shakespeare ever actually beheld it, whether he is but 
giving hearsay evidence. He was an islander, and moreover 
a lowlander, and whether he placed his dramatis persone in 
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