1 86 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



September, 1905 



son Seton, who hunts without powder. It is related of him 

 by Ernest Ingersoll, the naturalist, that once, when guns 

 were called into sudden requisition during a journey across 

 the Rocky Mountains, Nuttall's fowling-piece was found 

 stuffed to the muzzle with bulbs of new species. 



Not until 1842, when Dr. Joshua Fisher, of Beverly, 

 Mass., a Harvard man of the class of 1766, endowed a 

 professorship of natural history, to which Dr. Asa Gray was 

 promptly called, did an era of prosperity dawn for the Bo- 

 tanic Garden. Dr. Gray was then only thirty-two years old, 



One End of the Virgil Garden 



but already he had attained marked distinction in his chosen 

 branch of knowledge. From the first year of his coming to 

 the college a glowing interest in botany developed among 

 the students. Quarters had to be enlarged, courses extended 

 and the corps of workers for the Garden increased. Un- 

 fortunately, though, there was no corresponding augmenta- 

 tion of the endowment. Only Dr. Gray could have kept 

 the enterprise going with such inadequate funds as were at 

 his disposal. By the expenditure of untiring energy, how- 

 ever, this very able curator enriched the display by large 

 numbers of native and foreign plants, and soon caused the 

 Garden to become the recipient of the newer treasures coming 

 from the West and Southwest. Dr. Gray was wont to place 

 in nooks not easily accessible to the public the rarer plants, 

 which have since become the common property of horticul- 

 ture, and in this way he introduced some of the choicest 

 novelties. 



No worthy branch of Harvard University seems to have 

 suffered more, first and last, for lack of support, than the 

 Botanic Garden. About i860 it became a serious question, 

 indeed, whether all operations there should not cease. At 

 this critical period, however, a subscription of $1,500 a year 

 for three years was raised through the exertions of Dr. 

 George Hayward, to give temporary relief, and in 1864 

 Nathaniel Thayer gave a building for the invaluable Her- 

 barium, comprising over two hundred thousand plants, and 

 the library of twenty-two hundred botanical works (includ- 

 ing an autographed copy of Goethe's " Metamorphosis of 

 Plants"), presented to the University by Dr. Gray. In 

 1 87 1 H. H. Hunnewell added a lecture-room. Money for 

 running expenses was still lacking, however; and from 1872 

 Dr. Gray had no salary but his house rent, and personally 

 bore the expense of a curator for the Herbarium which he 

 had presented to the college. During these latter years, 

 though, the professor had no classes, but devoted his entire 



time to the completion, in the sunny study which adjoins the 

 Herbarium, of his long-delayed " Flora." 



The classes had meanwhile been placed in the hands of 

 Prof. George L. Goodale, who is still at the head of 

 this department at the college, and who is also now the 

 curator of the Garden. In the twelve years between Dr. 

 Gray's relinquishment of the active duties of the curatorship 

 and Dr. Goodale's assumption of them, Prof. Charles 

 Sprague Sargent was in charge of things, at the corner of 

 Linnaean and Raymond Streets, Cambridge, and it is to his 

 skill and to the increased funds resulting from a vigorously 

 conducted subscription canvass that the Garden owes much 

 of its present attractiveness. The distribution of species was 

 changed at this period, and many improvements, which 

 poverty had hitherto forbidden, were successfully introduced. 



For inspection the Garden may be conveniently divided 

 into the upper level and the area below the terrace, where the 

 natural order of flowering plants and the genera of ferns 

 and their allies are arranged in formal beds, so disposed as 

 to exhibit many of the affinities of the families. Here, too, 

 are special beds devoted to groups of plants of particular 

 interest — such as those mentioned by seventeenth century 

 writers, and those celebrated by Virgil and Shakespeare. 



The Shakespeare garden is the most interesting spot in 

 the estate's whole seven acres, not only on its own account, 

 but also for the suggestion it offers to private garden makers. 

 At this time of the year the marigold is particularly con- 

 spicuous among its flowers of long and distinguished lineage. 

 Perdita says: 



" The marigold that goes to bed with the sun 

 And with him rises weeping; these are the flowers 

 Of middle summer." 



Strolling farther along the grass-bordered walk, away 

 from the greenhouses, that alluring trio, mint, balm and 

 savory, are found, all of which are attractive plants, though 

 not in bloom in the late summer. The gardener here will tell 

 you that savory is not named from its qualities of taste or 

 savor, but is a corruption of the old Italian name — savo- 

 reggia. The marjoram — mentioned in the lines — 



" Here's flowers for you, 

 Hot lavender, mint, savory, marjoram " — 



is not, however, to be found in the Shakespeare bed, but just 

 across the way in the Virgil garden. Here also is the rose- 

 mary, so well remembered by Ophelia's mad lines, " There's 

 rosemary that's for remembrance; pray, love, remember," 

 and by its homely property, the keeping moths out of old- 

 time clothes chests. 



The violet, the rose, the columbine, the primrose, the 

 poppy, the pinks and the pansies, all so well known, most of 

 which are so often mentioned by Shakespeare, and all of 

 which have for us deep and tender associations, are ap- 

 propriately included in the parterres of this Shakespeare gar- 

 den. The rose is mentioned by Shakespeare more often than 

 any other plant. He speaks of at least eight varieties — par- 

 ticularly, of course, of the white and red, made famous by 

 the rival wars of York and Lancaster, in the so-called his- 

 torical plays, and of the damask, which, originally taken 

 by the Crusaders from Damascus, was brought to England 

 by Dr. Linaker, physician to King Henry VII. The English 

 daisy, too, is here, though now past its prime, being a flower 

 of spring, the same as the violet, spoken of by Shakespeare 

 in the " Spring Song " from " Love's Labor's Lost " : 



" When Daisies pied and Violets blue, 

 And Lady-smocks all silver white, 

 And Cuckoo Buds of yellow hue 

 Do paint the meadows with delight." 



