CHAP. £1. 



BRITISH ISLANDS. 



55 



^ again in 1*768, in another copy of that work; and the following 

 extract from those made in 1 764 is abridged from a communication 

 by A. B. Lambert, Esq , to the Lm?7^a?i Transactions, vol. x. : — 

 " The gardeners about London in 1712," he says, "were 

 remarkable for fine cut greens, and dipt yews in the shapes of 

 birds, dogs, men, ships, &c. Mr. Parkinson, in Lambeth, was 

 much noticed for these things, and he had besides a few myrtles, 

 oleanders, and ev^ergreens. At that time, Mr. Rench, who 

 lived behind the Earl of Peterborough's at Parson's Green, was 

 famous for tidip trees : he began the collecting of evergreens, 

 arbutuses, phillyreas, &c. ; and from him came the gold and 

 silver hedgehog holly. He gave rewards for accidental varieties 

 of the common holly, and thus obtained the saw-leaved variety, 

 and a variegated holly which bears his name. He and Parkin- 

 son died about 1724. Brompton Park and Hunt's at Putney- 

 were fine nurseries. In 1764, Chelsea Garden excelled all the 

 others in Europe for variety of plants. In 1759, there were, in 

 the American grove at Goodwood, two fine great magnolias 

 [M. grandiflora], about 20 ft. high, that flowered annually." 

 CoHinson adds, that his tree of this species flowered in 1760, which 

 he had raised from seed 20 years before. " Lord Petre, he con- 

 tinues, " who was the ornament and delight of the age he lived in, 

 removed, in the spring of 1734, twentj^-four full-grown elms about 

 60 ft. high, and 2 ft. in diameter : all grew finely, and now 

 (1764) are not known from the old trees they were planted to 

 match." In 1738, he planted an avenue of elms 15 or 20 years 

 old, cedars 20 years old, and larches 1 1 years old. John Clarke, a 

 butcher at Barnes, was famous for raising cedars from seed, from 

 the great tree at Hendon Place ; and also for raising plants of 

 the small magnolia [M. glauca]. Clarke sold a thousand cedars 

 in 1761, five years old, for 79/. 6s., to the Duke of Richmond, 

 which were all planted at Goodwood, and did well. The cedars 

 at Whitton were all raised from seed by the Duke of Argyle in 

 1725. In 1762, most of the duke's rare trees and shrubs were 

 removed to Kew, then belonging to the Princess of Wales, and 

 under the direction of Lord Bute. Mr. Vernon, a Turkey 

 merchant at Aleppo, brought the weeping willow from the river 

 Euphrates to his seat at Twickenham Park, where Collinson 

 saw it growing in 1748. This was the original of all the weep- 

 ing willows in our gardens. [In the Hortlis Kewensis, the 

 weeping willow is stated to have been cultivated at Hampton 

 Court in 1692.j In 1761, Mr. Sharpe, at South Lodge, in 

 Enfield Chase, invited Mr. Collinson to dine with him, and 

 to see the Cornus florida in flower. In 1746, Mr. Collinson 

 received the first double Spanish broom from Mr. Brewer of 

 Nuremberg. In 1756, the famous tulip tree in Lord Peter- 

 borough's garden at Parson's Green, near Fulhara, died. It 



