120 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



were supposed to cure deafness, giddiness, loss of memory, the 

 plague, ague, swellings or wounds, the bites of serpents or 

 mad dogs, and many other complaints. With faith in such 

 a catalogue of its uses, it is not astonishing that the " Blessed 

 Thistle " was cultivated in every garden. Another plant that 

 was grown in all gardens, from the tenth century onwards, 

 was the Mandrake (Mandragora vemalis and autumnalis). 

 More ridiculous superstitions cluster round this plant than are 

 attached to any other. The roots were supposed to resemble 

 the figure of a man, and to possess certain mystic powers, there- 

 fore spurious roots were manufactured in this form, and sold as 

 charms. It was said to shriek when pulled from the ground, 

 and the sound was so horrible that anyone who heard it went 

 out of his mind or died. Shakespeare refers to this superstition : 



" And shrieks like Mandrakes torn out of the earth, 

 That living mortals, hearing them, run mad," 



Romeo and Juliet, Act IV., Scene 3. 



Not only in the Herbals proper, but in almost every practical 

 work on gardening, the " vertues and physic helps " of each 

 flower are enumerated. Thomas Hill devotes four pages to the 

 " physicke helps and worthie secrets of the Colewort," or 

 cabbage. Even Parkinson finds some medicinal use for nearly 

 every plant, and only a few " are wholly spent for their flowers 

 sake "j 1 even of tulips he confesses to have " made trial," and 

 preserved the bulbs in sugar, and found them pleasant. " That 

 the roots are nourishing there is no doubt ... for divers have 

 had, them sent by their friends from beyond sea, and mis- 

 taking them to be onions, have used them as onions in their 

 pottage or broth, and never found any cause of mislike, or any 

 sense of evil quality produced by them, but accounted them 

 sweet onions." 2 * 



By far the most important introduction into the kitchen 

 garden was the potato. The generally received idea is that the 

 potato was first brought to Europe by Sir Walter Raleigh, from 

 Virginia, but this is doubtful. There have been great discus- 

 sions among botanists on the subject of its native habitat. 

 That Sir Walter Raleigh and his companion, Thomas Herriott, 



1 Larkspur, Paradisus, p. 278. 2 Parkinson, Paradisus, p. 77. 



