From the commencement of the seventeenth century to 1636, during the reign of James I., and part of that of Charles I., twenty-six plants were introduced; all, except four, in the year 1629. The reason why so many appear in this year is, that it is the date of the first edition of Parkinson's Paradisi in Sole, &c., in which they were first enumerated. The only introducers mentioned are, Mr. Serjeant Newdigate; John de Franqueville, a merchant in London, from whose care, Parkinson says, "is sprung the greatest store of rare plants that is now flourishing in this kingdom;" Wilmot, and Parkinson. Among the plants introduced during this period are some of considerable interest; the silver fir by Serjeant Newdigate, the gum cistus, the horsechestnut, the five-leaved ivy, the common laurel, the pyracantha, the red mulberry, the black walnut, and that most important tree, the larch: the introducers of the last eight valuable plants are unknown. Five of the articles are from North America, one from Asia, and the rest from different parts of the continent of Europe. Evelyn states that "at Harefield Park, in the county of Middlesex, belonging to Mr. Serjeant Newdigate, there are two Spanish or silver firs, that being planted there in the year 1603, at two years' growth from the seed, are now (1679) become goodly masts. The biggest of them, from the ground to the upper bough, is 81 ft., though forked on the top; which has not a little impeded its growth. The girt, or circumference, below, is 13 ft.; and the length, so far as it is timber, that is to 6 in. square, is 73 ft.; in the middle it is 17 in. square; amounting by calculation to 146 ft. of good timber. The other tree is indeed not altogether so large, by reason of its standing near the house when it was burned about 40 years since, when one side of the tree was scorched." (Silva, edit. 1706.) In 1640 (still during the reign of Charles I.), twenty-three plants were introduced. The authority is Parkinson's Herbal, or Theatre of Plants, published in that year. The introducers were, Parkinson, Tradescant, and Tradescant junior. Among the articles were, the Robínia Pseùd-Acàcia, the azarole, the Persian lilac, the occidental plane, and the deciduous cypress. Seven are from North America, and the rest from different parts of Europe. In the year 1656 (in the time of Cromwell), sixteen plants were introduced, the authority for which is the Catalogue of Tradescant's Museum, published in that year. Among the articles are, Acer rubrum, the evergreen honeysuckle, the nettle tree, and the grey walnut. From 1658 to 1683 (Charles II.), nine plants were introduced, by Edward Morgan, John Rea, Bishop Compton, Evelyn, and the Earl of Norfolk. Among these are, the Pistàcia Lentíscus, the red cedar, the Constantinople nut, and the tulip tree. Only three of these are from North America. In 1683, twenty plants were introduced, by James Sutherland, first curator of the botanic garden of Edinburgh, Bishop Compton, and Parkinson. Among these were, the Acer platanoides, the American spindle tree, the kermes oak, the dwarf almond, the scarlet thorn, the Laúrus Benzòin, the liquidambar, the Aleppo pine, and the cedar of Lebanon. The principal authority is Sutherland's Catalogue of the Plants in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, published in 1683. From the year 1688 to the year 1700 inclusive (James II., and William and Mary), thirty-one species were introduced, by Bishop Compton, the Honourable Charles Howard, the Duchess of Beaufort, Jacob Bobart, son of the first superintendent of the Oxford Botanic Garden, and others. The authorities are to be found in Ray's Historia Plantarum, in the Phytographia of Plukenet, and in Bobart's Historia Plantarum Oxoniensis. The titles of all these catalogues, and several others used as authorities for the dates of the introduction, or rather first record, of plants, are given in the preface to the second edition of the Hortus Kewensis. The botanists to whom the British arboretum was most indebted during the seventeenth century were, Parkinson, Tradescant junior, Ray, and Sutherland; and the principal botanical amateurs were, the Bishop of London and the Duchess of Beaufort. Parkinson was born in 1567, and was contemporary with Gerard and L'Obel. He possessed a rich garden, and was appointed apothecary to James I. He appears to have died somewhere about 1650. John Tradescant junior inherited his father's museum, and published a catalogue of it, entitled Museum Tradescantianum, in 1656. He died in 1662, bequeathing the museum to Mr. Ashmole, who lodged in his house, and whose name the museum now, " unjustly," as Pulteney remarks, bears in Oxford, where it is deposited. John Ray was born at Black Notley, near Braintree in Essex, in 1628. His father, though a blacksmith, contrived to give him a college education. college, he imbued the minds of some of his companions with a taste for plants, and he pursued this taste himself at every leisure opportunity. In 1660 he was ordained deacon and priest, and after this time he made various journeys throughout Britain, and visited the Continent. He was the author of numerous works, the principal of which relating to plants are, his General History of Plants, his Methodus Plantarum, and his Synopsis Methodica Stirpium Britannicarum. He died in 1704, at his birthplace, at the age of 76. At SUBSECT. 4. Of the Foreign Trees and Shrubs introduced into Britain in the 18th Century. A HOST of amateurs, botanists, and commercial gardeners enriched the British arboretum during this century. In the preceding one, the taste for foreign plants was confined to a few, and these not the richest persons in the community; but generally medical men, clergymen, persons holding small situations under government, or tradesmen. In the 18th century, the taste for planting foreign trees extended itself among the wealthy landed proprietors; partly from the influence of the Princess Dowager of Wales, who established the arboretum at Kew, and partly from the display previously made by Archibald Duke of Argyle at Whitton, the Duke of Richmond at Goodwood, and others. Towards the middle of the century, the change introduced in the taste for laying out grounds, by Pope, Addison, and Kent; and the circumstance that Brown, who had been a practical gardener, was extensively employed in remodelling country residences according to this new taste, must have greatly contributed to increase the number of species employed in plantations; and hence we have the collections at Croome, at Syon, and at Claremont. The writings of Miller, Bradley, Switzer, and Linnæus, and the consequent spread of botanical knowledge among the educated classes about the middle of the century or before, must have enlightened practical men to a degree far exceeding that which had ever previously existed. In order to give a general view of the state of gardening in England in the first half of the 18th century, as far as it respects foreign trees, we shall begin by giving a summary notice, by Collinson, of the chief encouragers of gardening and planting of his time. Peter Collinson was born in London, in 1693: he was a quaker, and a linendraper. He had a country house and garden, first at Peckham in Surrey, and afterwards at Mill Hill, near Hendon in Middlesex. He appears to have taken possession of the latter place, Ridgeway House, sometime previous to 1749. He was a great lover of animated nature in every form'; and in one of his letters, published by Sir James Edward Smith, in the Linnæan Correspondence, he declares that every living thing called forth his affections. In a note written in 1768, in one of his copies of Miller's Dictionary, which was purchased from one of his lineal descendants in January 1835, by A. B. Lambert, Esq., and which, through the kindness of that gentleman, we have just seen, he declares, at the age of 68, that the plants in his garden at Mill Hill furnish his greatest source of happiness. He died in 1768. In the year 1764, he made notes on some blank leaves in a copy of Miller's Dictionary, and again in 1768, in another copy of that work; and the following extract from those made in 1764 is abridged from a communication by A. B. Lambert, Esq, to the Linnæan Transactions, vol. x.: -"The gardeners about London in 1712," he says, "were remarkable for fine cut greens, and clipt yews in the shapes of birds, dogs, men, ships, &c. Mr. Parkinson, in Lambeth, was much noticed for these things, and he had besides a few myrtles, oleanders, and evergreens. At that time, Mr. Rench, who lived behind the Earl of Peterborough's at Parson's Green, was famous for tulip trees: he began the collecting of evergreens, arbutuses, phillyreas, &c.; and from him came the gold and silver hedgehog holly. He gave rewards for accidental varieties of the common holly, and thus obtained the saw-leaved variety, and a variegated holly which bears his name. He and Parkinson died about 1724. Brompton Park and Hunt's at Putney were fine nurseries. In 1764, Chelsea Garden excelled all the others in Europe for variety of plants. In 1759, there were, in the American grove at Goodwood, two fine great magnolias [M. grandiflora], about 20 ft. high, that flowered annually." Collinson adds, that his tree of this species flowered in 1760, which he had raised from seed 20 years before. "Lord Petre, he continues, "who was the ornament and delight of the age he lived in, removed, in the spring of 1734, twenty-four full-grown elms about 60 ft. high, and 2 ft. in diameter: all grew finely, and now (1764) are not known from the old trees they were planted to match." In 1738, he planted an avenue of elms 15 or 20 years old, cedars 20 years old, and larches 11 years old. John Clarke, a butcher at Barnes, was famous for raising cedars from seed, from the great tree at Hendon Place; and also for raising plants of the small magnolia [M. glaúca]. Clarke sold a thousand cedars in 1761, five years old, for 79l. 6s., to the Duke of Richmond, which were all planted at Goodwood, and did well. The cedars at Whitton were all raised from seed by the Duke of Argyle in 1725. In 1762, most of the duke's rare trees and shrubs were removed to Kew, then belonging to the Princess of Wales, and under the direction of Lord Bute. Mr. Vernon, a Turkey merchant at Aleppo, brought the weeping willow from the river Euphrates to his seat at Twickenham Park, where Collinson saw it growing in 1748. This was the original of all the weeping willows in our gardens. [In the Hortus Kewensis, the weeping willow is stated to have been cultivated at Hampton Court in 1692.] In 1761, Mr. Sharpe, at South Lodge, in Enfield Chase, invited Mr. Collinson to dine with him, and to see the Córnus flórida in flower. In 1746, Mr. Collinson received the first double Spanish broom from Mr. Brewer of Nuremberg. In 1756, the famous tulip tree in Lord Peterborough's garden at Parson's Green, near Fulham, died. It |