OF BEGINNINGS u 



white black and red, being almost as good as a dam- 

 son" — ^he closes the list gravely, in his matter-of-fact 

 way, with the self-revealing phrase, "abundance of 

 roses, white, red and damask; single, but very sweet 

 indeed." 



It is of course obvious that gardens, as we conceive 

 and know them, could not exist until inroads had been 

 made upon the wilderness. And it is equally obvious 

 that until both wilderness and savage had been sub- 

 dued to a considerable degree, little thought could be 

 given to the cultivation of any plant that had no def- 

 inite economic value. Here and there a single flower 

 undoubtedly, brought across the many leagues of sea, 

 was watched and tended carefully by a homesick 

 woman, not for its own loveliness perhaps — the wil- 

 derness offered beauty in abundance, new and strange 

 — ^but for her homesickness, because it spake of home. 

 And precious seeds of well loved favorites were com- 

 mitted to the strange earth in little patches here and 

 there; gilliflowers, probably, and carnations — these 

 "the queen of delights and flowers" according to the 

 great Parkinson — sweet Williams, sweet Johns, holly- 

 hocks perhaps; and without doubt some bulbs, though 

 there would not have been space to bring many at 

 first. We may easily infer however that common wild 

 flowers were not among the early comers ; for it would 

 not be until they had grown precious because they 



