SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 
175 
sharp weather.” Jacobcea marina ( = Sprekelia formosissima) 
came from North America in 1658. J asmine (= odoratissimum) 
from Madeira about the same time, and many other plants 
were introduced. 
So much is done to encourage the improvement of flowers 
nowadays, by shows, competitions, and prizes, that it is 
difficult to realize that the efforts made in that direction long 
ago were spontaneous. The earliest record I have noticed of 
encouragement of the growth of flowers (except, of course, 
gratuities for presents of flowers at a much earlier date) is 
mentioned by Pulteney: 1 “ Mr. Ray informs us that the people 
of Norwich had long excelled in the culture and production of 
fine flowers, and that in those days ( c . 1660) the florists held 
their annual feasts, and crowned the best flower with a premium 
as a present.” 
The introduction of foreign tender plants led to the gradual 
growth of conservatories and hothouses. In a previous chapter 
some hints Sir Hugh Platt gave for the protection of delicate 
plants during the winter were noticed. In the second part 
of his work, first printed in 1660, he not only thinks of pro¬ 
tection, but has also a feeble idea of forcing, an art which did 
not develop until many years later. He writes, “ Quaere, 
If pease, beans, pompeons, musk mellons, and other pulse seeds, 
put in small pots . . . and placed in a gentle stove or some 
convenient place aptly warmed by a fire and then sown in 
March or April would they come up sooner ?” Again, he says: 
“ Why not utilize a kitchen fire planting them (i.e., apricots 
or vines) near a warm wall, or brewers, diers, soap boilers or 
refiners of sugar, who have continual fire, may easily convey 
the heat of steam of their fires (which are now utterly lost) 
into some private room adjoining wherein to bestow their fruit 
trees.” 
Attention was now turned to growing oranges, and the 
houses built for the shelter of these trees are the earliest kind 
of conservatory. Very far removed from the modem glass 
structure, they were like large rooms with big windows and a 
stove or open fire to warm it in the coldest time, or “ in default 
of stoves or raised hearths you must attemper the air with pans 
1 Sketches of Botany, 1790. 
