AECANA HORTENSlA 
I ■ 
From some source, now impossible to locate, the date 1716 has been indi¬ 
cated for the first edition, but this is not confirmed by any good authority, 
and it is highly improbable that there was any issue prior to 1718. The ear¬ 
lier date may have been based on the dedication, which is signed; ”Augspurg, 
den 19. Martij, 1716 ... M. J. A. Stelly P." This dedication is not found in 
later issues, which show.no traces of authorship save the pseudonym ”Isidorus 
Anthophilus%_ supplied in 1758. The original edition is entered under Stelly 
in the British Museum Catalogue; Cobres, ”Deliciae Cobresianae” (1782), 2:667 
J. Baer, Lager-Kat, 535, no.901; and Dultz, Ant.-Kat. 38, no.890; but later 
editions are almost invariably given as anonymous. We have been unable to 
find any biographical data about Stelly, whose name may even be a pseudonym, 
but who at least was an actual person, and the one chiefly responsible for 
the production of this book. 
The address to the reader is found in all copies examined, with slight 
change in form, altho later editions omit the date 1709, which shows when the 
work was compiled. According to this address Stelly does not claim the auth¬ 
orship of the book. He says explicitly that it is not the product of his own 
’’feeble mindf^j) but only the work of his ’’insignificant pen(^ and that he had 
occupied himself in translating it from the original French during the severe 
winter of 1709. Thru the courtesy of the Comte du Fenouil, who had been his 
host in Paris, he had become acquainted with the distinguished author of the 
original work. These ’’Kunst-stilck” or garden precepts had not only been ex¬ 
tracted from the latest and best edition thereof, but improved observations 
on many topics had been directly furnished by the author himself. The major¬ 
ity of the ’’Arcana” at the end of the book had been sent to Stelly some years 
before by Johann Ludwig, Freiherr von Roll, "Ritter Schultheiss” of the free 
canton of Solothurn. The author (probably the first mentioned, not von Roll) 
had moreover been so gracious as to permit him to copy all his tulip and car¬ 
nation lore from his own mnuscript, never before printed. 
Possibly Stelly himself believed in the original character of the work 
he translated, but its contents are largely if not wholly derived from well 
known 17th century books. A rough analysis of the first edition shows the 
following; A scheme of nomenclature for varieties of carnations based on 
their colors (p.38-40) is found in Laurent, ”Abr€g€ pour les arbres nains 
et autres” (1675), p.108-114; and "Lorant’s” method of breaking tulips (p. 
56-57) is taken from the same work, p.97-98. Incidentally, its author is 
called on p.38, "M. Porant Notaire de L&onl^^ A curious ”Ratzel” or riddle 
on tulip breaking (p.52-54), mentioned by Rev. Joseph Jacob in his bibliog¬ 
raphy in the Tulip Nomenclature Committee Report (1917), proves to be trans¬ 
lated from the equally unintelligible instructions in La Chesnee Monstereul, 
