CHAP. ir. 



BRITISH ISLANDS. 



63 



aiid shrubs, which will endure to be planted in the open air in 

 ii^ngland, which are to be found in the several nurseries near 

 London," arranged in alphabetical order, and with short de- 

 scriptions. The preface is signed by the twenty '« gardeners and 

 nurserymen" composing the Society, among which are Fairchild 

 o| Hoxton, Fnrber of Kensington, Miller of the Physic Garden, 

 Chelsea, Gray of Fulham, and F. and S. Hunt of Putney. 



Some of the patrons of gardening in the above enumeration 

 have been already mentioned, and of the others we know but 

 little. Spencer Compton, speaker of the House of Commons in 

 1714, and afterwards Earl of Wilmington, was a near relative 

 of Bishop Compton. He died in 1743. Lewis Kennedy, one 

 ot the founders of the Hammersmith Nursery, was gardener to 

 him in 1739. Sir Charles Wager had a residence at Parson's 

 Green, where he introduced the scarlet maple (which was then 

 called Wager's maple) in 1725. A Magnolm grandifl5ra 

 flowered m his garden in 1737. He died in 1743. Collinson 

 says that a tulip tree, which had been raised from a seed which 

 he gave Sir Charles Wager, flowered for the first time when it 

 was thirty years old, in 1756; and Lysons mentions a cedar of 

 remarkable growth, which grew near the house, in Sir Charles's 

 garden. [Enmrons, Sfc, ii. 829.) The grounds at Mitcham, which 

 belonged to Mr. Dubois, are now (Jan. 1835) the property of 

 Mr. Blake, an auctioneer at Croydon. Dubois's house has been 

 long since pulled down; but another has been built, which is 

 occupied by Mrs. Beckford. Li the grounds a number of the trees 

 planted by Mr. Dubois still remain. Among these are a very 

 large weeping willow; a nettle tree, with branches coverincr a 

 space 50 ft. in diameter, and with a trunk 6 ft. 8 in. in circmn- 

 lerence. The extremities of the branches hang down nearly to 

 the ground; and on Jan. 10. 1835, when we had the tree ex- 

 amined, the spray was still covered with dark purple berries, 

 rather larger than those of the common hawthorn. There is 

 a pinaster, with a clear trunk about 40 ft. high ; the girt, about 

 3 ft. from the ground, 9 ft. ; and the total height 60 ft. The 

 cracks in the bark of this tree are from 6 in. to Sin. deep. There 

 is a very old, large, and handsome mulberry tree, the branches 

 ot which cover a space of 60 ft. in diameter ; it bears abundantly 

 every year. Besides these, there are very large and old Scotch 

 pines; a large old stone pine; large Prunus Mahdleb ; a fine 

 ' ^ stag's lioi-n sumach, with a trunk 6 ft. in airt; 

 an old Bignonia radicans ; a large arbutus, and some other fine 

 specimens. Dubois died in J 740, aged 83 years. 



The following is an abridged list of the above-mentioned 

 catalogue of the Society of Gardeners, with the modern names 

 as given in our Hortus Britannicus, as far as we have been able 

 •to ascertain them : — 



