i 08 LIFE OF BEAN BUCK LAND, [ch. iv. 
Buckland was very fond of his garden, and brought 
plants from all parts of the Continent to place in it, often 
with the view of acclimatising them. A fig tree, which is 
still in existence at Christ Church, was brought from Aleppo 
by Dr. Pocock. 1 The Professor was especially fond of 
sweet-scented flowers, and it was the children’s business 
to provide him always with a Sunday button-hole. The 
first violet and cowslip were actively searched for, to be 
succeeded by woodbine, cabbage-rose, southern-wood (old 
man), jessamine, and clove-pink ; and then, when all the 
flowers were gone and autumn had set in, a sprig of 
lemon verbena picked from a greenhouse plant brought 
from Sicily. 
Dr. and Mrs. Buckland trained their children to take 
an interest in the conversation going on at meals, and 
always, when they came down to dessert in the evening, 
their father would have some anecdote or curious fact to 
tell them, and they on their part were expected to have 
something of interest to tell him—or some question to ask. 
This was no great difficulty, for the children were never 
taken for a dull “constitutional” walk, but were always 
sent on some special errand. Sometimes, for instance, 
1 Edward Pocock, Chaplain to English merchants, Aleppo, 1620. 
The Laudian Professorship was founded in his honour by Archbishop 
Laud, 1632. He was Professor of Hebrew and Cauon of Christ 
Church, and was sent at Lauds charges to purchase and collect Arabic 
manuscripts now in the Bodleian Library. Professor Margoliouth, who 
is at present indexing these manuscripts, adds that Pocock was highly 
distinguished as a theologian and Orientalist; and that in the opinion 
of Hallam he did more than any other one man to familiarise Europeans 
with the East. 
