JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
437 
May  14,  1896. 
There  is  aI*o  a  pretty  white  variety  and  several  others,  such  as 
lancifolium,  known  also  as  Jeffreyi  and  macrocarpum,  which, 
according  to  the  “  Kew  Hand  List,”  is  synonymous  with 
giganteum.  I  am  not  yet  in  possession  of  D.  Lemoinei,  which  is 
said  to  be  of  garden  origin,  but  I  am  glad  to  possess  D.  Clevelandi, 
which  I  hope  some  day  to  see  in  flower  in  my  garden.  It  was 
kindly  sent  me  by  Mr.  J.  N.  Gerard,  and  makes  and  loses  its 
growth  very  early  in  the  season.  I  am  not  quite  sure  that  it  will 
be  a  success  in  our  climate,  although  I  think  it  has  pulled  through 
two  winters  here.  The  Dodecatheons  like  a  cool  and  rather  shady 
position,  and  seem  to  approve  of  the  light  soil  of  my  garden.  They 
may  be  increased  by  division  when  they  have  begun  to  grow  in 
early  spring  or  by  means  of  seed,  which  is,  however,  sometimes 
long  in  germinating.  This  is  one  of  the  plants  which  I  should 
much  like  to  see  in  its  native  home  in  North  America.  When  I 
have  enough  of  D.  Meadia  I  mean  to  make  a  small  colony  of  it  by 
the  margin  of  my  little  Water  Lily  pool,  where  I  think  it  would 
look  very  beautiful  indeed. 
Although  I  have  mentioned  it  before,  I  think  it  will  not  prove 
amiss  to  say  a  few  words  about  Iris  lacustris,  another  North 
American  plant  apparently  rare  in  this  country,  although,  according 
to  a  Canadian  correspondent,  it  seems  plentiful  near  the  lakes.  I 
have  grown  it  for  a  few  years,  and  although  I  have  frequently 
given  away  pieces  I  counted  to-day  twenty  open  flowers  on  my 
plant.  A  charming  little  Iris  it  is,  which  grows  only  about  a  couple 
of  inches  high  on  a  rockery  facing  almost  south-west.  It  is  said  to 
grow  in  gravelly  soil  by  the  lakes,  but  I  grow  it  in  sandy  peat  and 
grit  on  a  level  terrace  of  the  rockery.  As  I  write  the  Tulips  are 
in  full  glory,  and  very  brilliant  they  are,  by  far  the  most  shapely 
being  those  which  were  so  long  the  care  of  the  florist.  The  named 
Dutch  varieties  lack  the  refinement  of  what  are  justly  known  as 
the  “  English  ”  Tulips  ;  but  they  look  well  in  the  garden  with  their 
flamed  and  feathered  flowers.  I  think  the  bizarres  look  well  in 
suitable  positions  among  garden  flowers. 
It  is  no  doubt  rank  heresy  to  the  “  Tulip  fancier,”  but  for 
garden  decoration  in  suitable  soils  there  is  no  need  to  lift  the  Tulips 
every  year,  and  they  may  be  allowed  to  remain  for  years.  It  is 
beyond  my  province  to  say  more  about  the  grand  Tulips  of  which 
Mr.  Bentley  can  speak  with  so  much  ability  and  knowledge,  and  I 
thus  only  say  a  little  now  in  praise  of  a  showy  garden  Tulip  in  full 
bloom  as  I  write.  This  i»  Buonoventura,  which  comes  a  bright 
scarlet  and  gold,  or  rather  gold  with  scarlet  streaks,  and  passes  off 
a  creamy  yellow  with  crimson  on  the  outer  segments,  and  bright 
yellow  and  crimson  on  the  inner  ones.  The  flower  i»  pointed 
— a  defect  in  some  eyes — but  look*  very  gay  and  attractive  in  the 
border. 
Bright,  too,  but  of  a  different  character  altogether,  is  the  dwarf 
yellow-flowered  composite  Doronicum  *corpioides,  a  little  plant 
with  comparatively  large  flowers,  which  appear*  to  have  been  to 
some  extent  a  puzzle  to  those  who  seek  to  grow  their  flowers  under 
the  most  approved  names.  It  is  said  to  have  been  Arnica 
Aronicum,  Arnica  scorpioides,  and  Aronicum  scorpioides,  and  now 
it  has,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  found  a  permanent  name,  seeing  that  it 
appears  in  the  pages  of  the  “  Kew  Hand  List  of  Herbaceous 
Plants  ”  as  Doronicum  scorpioides.  Bright  are  its  large  golden 
flowers,  and  pleasing  its  light  green  denticulated  leaves.  It 
is  growing  near  the  front  of  a  border  with  a  south  aspect  and  in 
light  soil.  It  is  about  6  inches  high,  but  in  stronger  soil  grows 
considerably  taller.  It  is  said  to  have  been  introduced  from  South 
Europe  in  1710.  These  are  a  few  flowers  out  of  many  now  in 
bloom,  for  May  brings  with  it  floral  beauty  unsurpassed. 
The  Arabia,  which  made  sheets  as  of  snow,  has  almost  lost  its 
bloom  ;  but  pure  Candytufts  and  Saxifrages,  almost  numberless, 
vie  with  Hutchinsia  alpina  in  supplying  its  place.  The  golden 
Alyssum  saxatile  is  covered  with  its  flowers,  unassuming  in  them¬ 
selves  when  taken  singly,  but  in  a  mass  of  brightest  effect.  The 
Aubrietias  are  delightful  in  their  varied  shades  of  purple,  lilac,  and 
rose.  The  varieties  of  Phlox  subulata  delight  those  who  see  them 
with  their  sheets  of  little  flowers,  ranging  through  many  shades. 
The  Great  White  Trinity  Flower  or  American  Wood  Lily, 
Trillium  grandiflorum,  flourishes  in  a  little  nook  of  the  rock 
garden,  where  a  peaty  soil  and  moisture  renders  it  happy  and  a 
source  of  pleasure  to  all  who  see  it.  The  first  of  the  Sun  Roses 
have  opened  their  fragile  crinkled  blossoms,  and  the  fugacious 
Poppyworts  are  represented  by  Stylophorum  diphyllum  and 
Meconopsis  cambrica,  that  pretty  but  amazingly  prolific  plant. 
Spanish  Squills  please  us  too  with  their  bells  of  blue  or  of 
white,  and  Lilies  are  preparing  to  enter  on  that  annual  tourney 
with  the  Rose,  which  is  also  fast  hastening  into  bloom.  Then 
there  are  Globe  Flowers,  Alpine  Wallflowers,  Violas,  Barren  worts, 
Anemones,  Irises,  Hedge  Mustards,  Auriculas,  Narcissi,  Poly¬ 
anthuses,  hardy  Orchids,  Lupins,  Alliums,  Stars  of  Bethlehem, 
Houstonia,  Summer  Snowflakes,  and  many  more,  from  which  we 
shall  be  loth  to  part,  even  though  we  have  the  promise  of  other 
gems,  which  in  later  summer  make  the  garden,  as  now,  our  happy 
resort  and  source  of  joy. — S.  Arnott. 
HORTICULTURAL  HISTORY  NOTES. 
Pioneer  Gardeners  in  North  London. 
Could  we  resuscitate  for  a  visit  to  London  one  of  the  citizens 
who  lived  there  in  the  Middle  Ages,  and  take  him  to  localities  with 
which  he  was  then  familiar,  now  so  greatly  changed,  he  would 
certainly  be  amazed  at  many  things.  One  alteration  he  could  not 
fail  to  notice,  the  dryness  of  the  metropolis  in  our  day  as  compared 
with  his.  He  was  once  accustomed  to  see  marshy  meadows, 
occasionally  resembling  small  lakes,  not  far  from  the  City  walls  ; 
indeed,  through  the  heart  of  London,  numerous  winding  brooks 
made  their  way  to  the  Thames  ;  streams,  almost  reaching  to  the 
proportions  of  rivers,  were  conspicuous  in  the  suburbs,  taking  their 
rise  at  Clerkenwell,  Hoxton,  and  Islington,  or  at  the  more  distant 
Hampstead  and  Hackney.  We  can  scarcely  realise  the  satisfaction 
it  gave  the  early  London  gardeners  to  secure  ground  near  one  or 
other  of  these  rivulets.  Dim  as  is  our  knowledge  of  the  precise 
spot  where  worthy  Master  Gerard  had  his  Holborn  garden,  we 
have  reason  to  think  he  had  the  advantage  of  two  streams,  the 
“  River  of  Wells  ”  and  the  Old  Bourne,  while  the  conformation  of 
the  land  gave  him  a  choice  of  sunny  or  sheltered  positions  for  his 
plants.  An  address  of  his  to  Lord  Burleigh  informs  us  that  to  the 
plants  of  “  this  noble  island  he  added  from  foreign  places  all  the 
varieties  of  plants  and  herbs  he  might  any  way  obtain.” 
Some  would  indeed  give  Gerard  the  credit  of  having  carried  out 
the  first  botanic  garden  in  Britain,  but  he  had  predecessors,  though 
they  worked  in  a  smaller  way.  Bulleyn  is  one,  for  instance.  None 
before  him,  it  is  evident,  took  so  much  trouble  to  procure  exotics, 
by  correspondence  or  the  agency  of  travellers,  and  probably  nobody 
had  been  so  successful  in  their  cultivation.  Greenhouses  he 
certainly  had  not,  but  he  protected  tender  plants  in  winter  by  such 
appliances  as  were  known  to  gardeners  of  the  Tudor  period. 
Anyhow,  he  was  able  to  enumerate  1039  species  in  his  catalogue 
dated  1596,  and  his  friend  De  Lobel  asserts  that  he  had  seen  them 
all  growing.  His  repute  as  a  skilful  gardener  led  to  his  receiving 
subsequently  from  Queen  Anne,  consort  of  James  I.,  the  free 
grant  of  an  additional  plot  for  experiment,  situate  on  the  bank  of 
the  Thames  near  Somerset  House.  It  has  been  conjectured  that 
the  Potato  was  first  cultivated  in  England  by  Gerard,  because  the 
frontispiece  of  his  “  Herbal  ”  represents  him  as  holding  this  plant, 
with  its  flower  and  fruit.  Upon  Snow  Hill,  adjacent  to  Gerard’* 
ground,  Johnson  had  a  small  physic  garden,  or  garden  of  herbs 
used  in  cookery  and  medicine,  about  which  we  have  few 
particulars.  In  passing  I  notice  that  no  one  can  explain  why  the 
hill  got  this  name,  but  it  is  also  spelt  in  some  old  books  “  Snor  ” 
and  “  Sore.” 
Domesday  Book  records  the  existence  of  a  vineyard  at  Holborn 
in  the  eleventh  century,  and  long  before  Gerard’s  time  a  memorable 
garden  occupied  a  large  space  there,  attached  to  the  palace  of  the 
Bishops  of  Ely.  John  de  Hotham,  a  fourteenth  century  bishop, 
planted  a  kitchen  and  orchard  ;  here  too  was  a  vineyard,  of  which 
the  locality  once  had  a  reminder  in  Vine  Street.  Saffron  was  an 
article  highly  favoured  by  our  ancestors,  and  Saffron  Hill  tells  us 
of  a  part  of  the  ground  which  was  appropriated  to  this  plant. 
Holinshed’s  record  is  that  its  fame  for  Strawberries  was  a  well- 
known  fact  in  the  reign  of  Richard  III.,  and  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth 
the  garden  was  evidently  renowned  for  its  Roses.  She  compelled 
poor  Bishop  Cox  to  give  up  the  estate  to  her  Lord  Chancellor 
Hatton,  after  whom  Hatton  Garden  is  named,  and  it  was  with 
difficulty  the  Bishop  got  permission  to  walk  in  the  gardens,  also  to 
gather  yearly  twenty  bushels  of  Roses.  Farther  along  the  same 
line  of  North  London,  evidently  a  favourite  part,  was  the  garden 
of  Parkinson,  granted  to  him  by  Charles  I.  in  consideration  of  his 
many  years’  study  of  plants.  This  was  somewhere  about  Long 
Acre,  that  name  applying  formerly  to  a  large  open  space  west  of 
Drury  Lane,  and  he  had  another  plot  in  St.  James’s  Fields,  near 
the  Palace.  Doubtless  his  14  Paradisus,”  the  first  edition  of  which 
appeared  in  1629,  displays  largely  the  results  obtained  by  him 
<  while  working  in  these  gardens.  Like  the  Bishops  of  Ely,  he  shows 
a  partiality  for  Roses.  His  book  states  that  he  had  thirty 
sorts  of  Roses,  differing  “  in  form,  colour,  and  smell amongst 
these  he  name*  three  Musk  Roses,  which  refutes  an  idea 
that  this  variety  was  not  cultivated  till  a  later  period.  A  floral 
group  that  is  depicted  proves  he  was  acquainted  with  the  Cyclamen 
and  the  Sunflower.  Tulips  must  have  been  one  speciality,  since  he 
had  the  unusual  number  of  160  varieties,  so  he  believed,  in  his 
garden  ;  but  he  remarks  that  at  that  time  the  Gillyflower  was  more 
esteemed  than  any  other. 
Speaking  of  fruits,  he  alludes  to  the  Nectarine  as  a  new  arrival, 
