OLD-TIME FLOWERS 205 



names and identity. Checking this result again by an 

 American work of 1806, there remain about thirty- 

 six plants common to all three, and five additional 

 common to the two latter that are not mentioned at all 

 by Rea. This gives us what must be a fairly accurate 

 list for the entire period which we wish to know about; 

 and Bradley of course covers all the first half of the 

 time and a little more. All of the things mentioned 

 by these two English writers, however, were not suit- 

 able to America, where climate offered so much greater 

 extremes ; but our present-day knowledge of what will 

 survive and thrive here, supplies the data for elimina- 

 tion which contemporary records fail to give. 



Some of the long-ago favorites of Rea's time were 

 dethroned in Bradley's, only to be again restored later 

 on — unless we regard Bradley's list as carelessly pre- 

 pared. I am compelled to think that it was, in some 

 parts; but, on the whole, I suppose it is as complete 

 as need be, for it mentions all the most prominent 

 things. Asphodels, though common enough, had prob- 

 ably never been greatly planted at any time; some of 

 our earliest gardens entertained them, however, yet 

 Bradley omits them. The lady's smock or cuckoo 

 flower — Cardamine pratensis — ^was ignored by him, 

 likewise the bastard saffron — Carthamus tinctorius; so 

 too were the martagon lilies, but this surely is an over- 

 sight, for these were continuous favorites over a 



