24 
Old Time Gardens 
with these Dutch homesteads a light-leaved Locust 
tree, shedding its beautiful flickering shadows on 
the long roof. I wonder whether there was any 
association or tradition that made the Locust the 
house-friend in old New York ! 
The first nurseryman in the new world was 
stern old Governor Endicott of Salem. In 1644 
he wrote to Governor Winthrop, “My children 
burnt mee at least 500 trees by setting the ground 
on fire neere them ” — which was a very pretty piece 
of mischief for sober Puritan children. We find all 
thoughtful men of influence and prominence in all 
the colonies raising various fruits, and selling trees 
and plants, but they had no independent business 
nurseries. 
If tradition be true, it is to Governor Endicott 
we owe an indelible dye on the landscape of eastern 
Massachusetts in midsummer. The Dyer’s-weed 
or Woad-waxen ( Genista tinctoria ), which, in July, 
covers hundreds of acres in Lynn, Salem, Swamp- 
scott, and Beverly with its solid growth and brill- 
iant yellow bloom, is said to have been brought to 
this country as the packing of some of the gov- 
ernor’s household belongings. It is far more prob- 
able that he brought it here to raise it in his garden 
for dyeing purposes, with intent to benefit the col- 
ony, as he did other useful seeds and plants. Woad- 
waxen, or Broom, is a persistent thing ; it needs 
scythe, plough, hoe, and bitter labor to eradicate 
it. I cannot call it a weed, for it has seized only 
poor rock-filled land, good for naught else ; and the 
radiant beauty of the Salem landscape for many 
