198 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 
The marshes for bog plants, to be seen at Kew and elsewhere 
at the present day, which are the admiration of lovers of a 
“ wild garden/' are no new thing. Bobart had one at Oxford, 
which is thus described by Robert Sharrock. 1 “ The Artificial 
Bog is made by digging a hole in any stiff clay, and filling it 
with earth taken from a bog ... of this sort, in our garden here 
in Oxford, we have one artificially made by Bobart, for the 
preservation of Boggy plants, where being sometimes watered, 
they thrive for a year or two as well as in their natural places." 
A catalogue of the garden, which contained some 1,600 species 
and varieties, was published by Bobart in 1648. Of these 
nearly 600 were native plants. The catalogue is a tiny 
book, and no space is given to describe the flowers. It is 
merely a list of names, the first part Latin-Bnglish, the second 
English-Latin. The list contains among trees “ Abies mas," 
“ male Firretree," “ Arbutus," “ Strawberry tree," “ Arbor 
Judae," “ Judas tree," “ Ash tree," etc. Among the flowers 
are about 20 sorts of Roses, including “ York and Lan¬ 
caster, Provence, Austrian and Cinnamon, 11 Violas, 9 Cle¬ 
matis, 7 Colchicum and 9 Crocus, double and single Peony, 
4 Foxgloves, 10 Lychnis, Campian, Bee Orchis, Orchis serapius," 
etc. The list also contains “ Nicotiana, English Tabacca," 
“ Yucca, Indian Bread," “ Stinging nettle," and four kinds of 
moss/^ f cup, club, hard sea, and tree mosse." 2 The plant 
names follow each other in alphabetical order, quite regardless 
of any classification. The first attempt to separate indigenous 
from foreign plants was made by William How in his work 
entitled Phytologia Britannica, 1650. 
Although this is not an attempt to compile a history of the 
progress of Botany, a task performed by Richard Pulteney with 
chronological accuracy more than a century ago, that science 
is so intimately connected with gardening that some references 
to it cannot be left out, for how could the immense number of 
plants now cultivated be understood or identified if it were 
1 An Improvement to the Art of Gardening, 3rd edition, 1694. 
2 A second and enlarged edition was published in 1658, with the 
co-operation of Philip Stephens and William Brown, both botanists of 
Oxford. It is a great improvement on the first, and makes frequent 
reference to Gerard and Parkinson. 
