eo “ee 
138 I[ntroducers of Exotic Flowers, ete, 
of his fellow-citizens ; for I have just received a medal, the 
eift of a literary friend from Paris, which bears his portrait, 
with the reverse, “ Societé d’Agriculture du Département 
de la Seine.” It was struck in 1807. The same honour is 
the right of Evelyn from the British nation. 
There was a period when the spirit of plantation was 
prevalent in this kingdom ; it probably originated from the 
ravages of the soldiery during the civil wars. A man, 
whose retired modesty has perhaps obscured his claims on 
our regard, the intimate friend of the great spirits of that 
age, by birth a Pole, but whose mother had probably been 
an English woman, Samuel Hartlib, to whom Milton 
addressed his tract on education, published every manu- 
script he collected on the subjects of horticulture and agri- 
culture. The public good he effected attracted the notice 
of Cromwell, who rewarded him with a pension, which, 
after the restoration of Charles II., was suffered to lapse, 
and Hartlib died in utter neglect and poverty. One of his 
tracts is “A design for plenty by an universal planting of 
fruit-trees.” The project consisted in enclosing the waste 
lands and commons, and appointing officers, whom he calls 
fruiterers, or wood-wards, to see the plantations were duly 
attended to. The writer of this project observes on fruits, 
that it is a sort of provisions so natural to the taste, that 
the poor man, and even the child, will prefer it before 
better food, “as the story goeth,’ which he has preserved 
in these ancient and simple lines: 
“‘'The poor man’s child invited was to dine, 
With flesh of oxen, sheep, and fatted swine, 
(Far better cheer than he at home could find,) 
And yet this child to stay had little minde. 
You have, quoth he, no apple, froise, nor pie, 
Stew’d pears, with bread and milk, and walnuts by.” 
The enthusiasm of these transplanters inspired their 
labours. They have watched the tender infant of their 
planting, till the leaf and the flowers and the fruit ex- 
panded under their hand; often, indeed, they have amelio- 
rated the quality, increased the size, and even created a 
new species. The apricot, drawn from America, was first 
known in Europe in the sixteenth century: an old French 
writer has remarked, that it was originally not larger than 
a damson ; our gardeners, he says, have improved it to the 
perfection of its present size and richness. One of these 
enthusiasts is noticed by Evelyn, who for forty years had 
