140 Introducers of Exotic Flowers, etc. 
first paper-mill in England, at Dartford, in 1590, is said to 
have brought over in his portmanteau the two first lime- 
trees, which he planted here, and which are still growing, 
The Lombardy poplar was introduced into England by 
the Earl of Rochford, in 1758. The first mulberry-trees in 
this country are now standing at Sion House. By an. 
Harleian MS., it is mentioned that the first general plant- 
ing of mulberries and making of silk in England was by 
William Stallange, comptroller of the custom house, and 
Monsieur Verton, in 1608. It is probable that Monsieur 
Verton transplanted this novelty from his own country, 
where we have.seen De Serres’s great attempt. Here the 
mulberries have succeeded better than the silkworms. 
The very names of many of our vegetable kingdom 
indicate their locality ; from the majestic cedar of Lebanon, 
to the small Cos-lettuce, which came from the isle of Cos; 
the cherries from Cerasuntis, a city of Pontus; the peach, 
or persicum, or mala Persica, Persican apples, from Persia ; 
the pistachio, or pszttacza, is the Syrian word for that nut. 
The chestnut, or chataigne, in French, and castagnua in 
Italian, from Castagna, a town of Magnesia. Our plums 
coming chiefly from Syria and Damascus ; the damson, or 
damascene plum, gives us a- recollection of its distant 
origin. 
It is somewhat curious to observe on this subject, that 
there exists an unsuspected intercourse between nations, in 
the propagation of exotic plants, &c. Lucullus, after the ~ 
war with Mithridates, introduced cherries from Pontus into 
Italy ; and the newly-imported fruit_was found so pleasing 
that it was rapidly propagated, and six-and-twenty years 
afterwards, as Pliny testifies, the cherry-tree passed over into 
Britain. Thus, a victory obtained by a Roman consul over 
a king of Pontus, with which it would seem that Britain 
could have no concern, was the real occasion of our 
countrymen possessing cherry-orchards. Yet, to our 
shame, must it be told, that these cherries from the king 
of Pontus’s-city of Cerasuntis, are not the cherries we are 
now eating; for the whole race of cherry-trees was lost in 
the Saxon period, and was only restored by the gardener 
of Henry VIII., who brought them from Flanders—with- 
out a word to enhance his own merits, concerning the 
bellum Mithridaticum ! 
A calculating, political economist will little sympathise 
with the peaceful triumphs of those active and generous 
spirits, who have thus propagated the truest wealth, and 
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