ESSA YS CIVIL AND MORAL. 73 



XLVI. OF GARDENS. 



God Almighty first planted a garden : and indeed it is the purest 

 of human pleasures. It is the greatest refreshment of the spirits of 

 man ; without which, buildings and palaces are but gross handyworks: 

 and a man shall ever see, that when ages grow to civility and elegancy, 

 men come to build stately, sooner than to garden finely, as if gardening 

 were the greater perfection. I do hold it, in the royal ordering of gar 

 dens, there ought to be gardens for all the months in the year : in 

 which, severally, things of beauty may be then in season. For Decem 

 ber and January, and the latter prtrt of November, you must take such 

 things as are green all winter; holly, ivy, bays, juniper, cypress-trees, 

 yew, pine-apple trees, fir trees, rosemary, lavender, periwinkle (the 

 white, the purple, and the blue), germander, flags, orange trees, lemon 

 trees, and myrtles, if they be stoved, and sweet marjoram, warm set. 

 There followeth, for the latter part of January and February, the 

 mczcreon tree, which then blossoms ; crocus vcrnus, both the yellow 

 anil the gray ; primroses, anemonics, the early tulip, hyacinthus orien- 

 talis, chamairis, fritellaria. For March there come violets, especially 

 the single blue, which are the earliest ; the yellow daffodil, the daisy, 

 the almond tree in blossom, the peach tree in blossom, the cornelian 

 tree in blossom, sweet briar. In April follow the double white violet, 

 the wallflower, the stock-gilliflowcr, the cowslip, flower-de-luces, and 

 lilies of all natures, rosemary-flowers, the tulip, the double piony, the 

 pale daffodil, the French honeysuckle, the cherry tree in blossom, 

 the damascene and plum trees in blossom, the white-thorn in leaf, 

 the lilach-trcc. In May and June come pinks of all sorts, espe 

 cially the blush pink ; roses of all kinds, except the musk, which 

 comes latci . honeysuckles, strawberries, bugloss, columbine, the 

 French marygold, flos Africanus, cherry-tree in fruit, ribes, figs in 

 fruit, rasps, vine-flowers, lavender in flowers, the sweet satyrian, with 

 the white flower ; herba muscaria, lilium convalium, the apple tree in 

 blossom. In July come gilliflowcrs of all varieties, musk roses, the 

 lime tree in blossom, early pears and plums in fruit, gennitings, codlins. 

 In August come plums of all sorts in fruit, pears, apricots, berberries, 

 filbcrds, musk melons, monks-hoods, of all colours. In September 

 come grapes, apples, poppies of all colours, peaches, mclo-cotoncs, 

 ncctariMcs, cornelians, wardens, quinces. In October, and the be 

 ginning of November, come services, medlars, bullaccs, roses cut or 

 removed to come late, hollyoaks, and such like. These particulars are 

 lor the climate of London : but my meaning is perceived, that you may 

 have ver perpetuiun, as the place affords. 



And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air, where it 

 comes and goes, like the warbling of music, than in the hand, therefore 

 nothing is more fit for that delight, than to know what be the flowers 

 and plants that do best perfume the air. Roses, damask and red. are 

 fast flowers of their smells ; so that you may walk by a whole row of 

 llicm, and find nulling of tlicir sweetness : yea, though it be in a 



