Love of Plants. 379 



LOVE OF PLANTS. 



The following is an extract from a celebrated work, (Ray's 

 Flora,) published in 1665. The truth and excellence of its 

 sentiments make this extract worth remembering. 



" Fair houses are more frequent than fine gardens ; the first 

 effected by artificers only, the latter requiring more skill in 

 the owner — few gardens being found well furnished out of the 

 hands of an affectionate florist. The love of such a master 

 will keep each tender plant alive his care and skill have col- 

 lected ; for never was any art or excellence liked or loved by 

 the ignorant ; it is knowledge that begets affection, and affec- 

 tion increaseth knowledge. Love was the inventor, and is 

 still the maintainer of every noble science. It is chiefly that 

 which hath made my flowers and trees to flourish, though 

 planted in a barren desert, and hath brought me to the know- 

 ledge I now have in plants and planting; for indeed it is 

 impossible for any man to have any considerable collection 

 of noble plants to prosper, unless he love them ; for neither 

 the goodness of the soil, nor the advantage of the situation, 

 will do it without the master's affection : it is that which ani- 

 mates and renders them strong and vigorous ; without which 

 they will languish and decay through neglect, and soon cease 

 to do him service. 



" I have seen many gardens of the new model, in the hands 

 of unskilful persons, with good walls, walks, and grass plots ; 

 but in the most essential adornment so deficient, that a green 

 meadow is a more delightful object : there nature alone, with- 

 out the aid of art, spreads her verdure carpets, spontaneously 

 embroidered with many pretty plants and pleasing flowers, 

 far more inviting than such an immured nothing. And as 

 noble fountains, grottoes, statues, &c. are excellent ornaments 

 and marks of magnificence, so all such dead works in gardens, 

 ill done, are little better than blocks in the way to interrupt 



