38 
The Presidential Address. 
from the Caucasus, since it is not known in the middle of 
Europe. 94 To the quaint Elizabethan gardens, often alluded 
to by Shakspere and Milton, and described by Bacon, or at a 
later date by Addison, many new vegetables and flowering 
plants had now been introduced from the New World. The 
first of these to become a naturalised escape in Essex was 
the Pearly Everlasting ( Antennaria margaritacea), which Ray 
himself noticed in a meadow at Booking. 93 Among his other 
works it is noteworthy that our great Essex naturalist drew 
up a special list of the plants of the county, 96 and that 
among them the Martagon Lily does not occur. This con¬ 
spicuous plant has, however, been known at Sampford since 
the beginning of this century ; but, though thus undoubtedly 
of recent introduction, it is in danger of rapid extermination, 
since the cottagers are in the habit of transplanting it into 
their gardens. 97 Ray tells us that the Common and Large- 
leaved Lime were considerably planted in his time, 98 as the 
Sycamore had been during the preceding century, and no 
doubt the influence of the ‘ Sylva ’ of his great contem¬ 
porary, John Evelyn, made itself felt in Essex, as elsewhere, in 
the planting of Oak, Beech, and other timber in the parks that 
were as numerous as they are now—the common pasture-lands 
of the old village communities converted into feudal manors. 
We have not in Essex been affected by the too zealous 
enthusiasm of botanists’ attempts at the acclimatisation of 
exotics, nor by the neighbourhood of botanic gardens ; but 
since the middle of the last century the Perfoliate Honey¬ 
suckle ( Lonicera caprifolium) , the Yellow Figwort ( Scropkularia 
vernalis), the Balm (. Melissa officinalis ), the Coriander, the 
Tulip, the Snowdrop, the Evening Primrose (an American 
species), and the Sweet Alyssum ( A . mantimum) f have escaped 
from gardens and become more or less established in a wild 
94 Ray’s ‘ Synopsis,’ ed. Dillenius (1724), p. 340, for this species, and 
elsewhere for those just mentioned. DeCandolle, op. cit., pp. 656-7. 
93 ‘ Synopsis,’ ed. Dillenius (1724), p. 182. 
96 In Gibson’s edition of Camden’s ‘Britannia,’ 1695. 
97 Gibson, ‘ Flora of Essex,’ p. 317. 
98 ‘ Synopsis’ (1724), p. 473 ; 1 Historia Plantarum,’ vol. ii., p. 1694. 
