286 LONDON PARKS 6? GARDENS 
Bacon has left the impress of his foot upon their 
gravel walks.” 
After such a delightful summary of their charms 
it seems cruel to try and dispel one of their most 
treasured traditions—namely, that Bacon planted the 
catalpa. It is a splendid and venerable tree, and 
there is no wish to pull it from its proud position of 
the first catalpa planted, and the finest in existence 
in this country ; but it is hard to believe that Bacon 
planted it, in the light of the history of the plant. 
There is no mention of a catalpa in any of the 
earlier writers—Gerard did not know it, and it is not 
in the later edition of his work by Thomas Johnson, 
in 1633, or in Parkinson’s u Paradisus,” in 1629, or m 
Evelyn’s “ Sylva,” in 1664, all published after Bacon’s 
death. 
The tree was first described by Catesby in his 
“ Natural History of Carolina,” a splendid folio which 
appeared in 1731. There it is classed as Bignonia 
urucu foliis , or Catalpa , as it was not until later that 
Jussieu separated the genus Catalpa. He says the 
tree was not known to the inhabitants of Carolina 
till the seeds “ were brought there from the remoter 
parts of the country,” “ and though the inhabitants 
are little curious in gardening, the uncommon beauty 
of this tree induced them to propagate it, and it is 
become an ornament to many of their gardens, and 
probably will be the same to ours in England, it being 
as hardy as most of our American plants : many of 
them, now at Mr. Bacon’s, at Hoxton, having stood 
out several winters without any protection, except the 
first year.” Hoxton was then a place famous for its 
nursery gardens. In 1767, in Catesby’s volume on 
