2. The origin of British horticulture is completely in volved in obscurity. It may in general be asserted, that most of our best fruits, particularly apples and pears, were brought into the island by ecclesiastics, in the days of monastic splendour and luxury, during the 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. Gardens and orchards (" orti et pomaria") are frequently mentioned in the earliest char tularies extant ; and of the orchards many traces still re main, in different parts of the country, in the form, not only of enclosure-walls and prepared fruit-tree borders, but of venerable pear-trees, some of them still abundantly fruitful, and others in the last stage of decay. Of the state of horticulture previous to the beginning of the 16th century, however, no distinct record exists. Till then, it is generally said, that some of our most •mmon pot herbs, such as cabbages, were chiefly imported from the Netherlands, their culture not being properly understood in this country ; but of this there is no distinct evidence, and the thing seems unlikely. From the "Itinerary" of Leland it appears, that even greenhouses were not then unknown in England.
3. During the reign of Henry VIII. rapid steps of im provement were made in horticulture. According to some authors, apricots and musk-melons were introduced by that monarch's gardener ; and different kinds of salad herbs and esculent roots were, about the same time, first brought into the country from Flanders. Henry had a fine garden at his favourite palace of Nonsuch, in the parish of Cheam in Surrey. Here Kentish cherries were first cultivated in England. The garden wall was four teen feet high ; the wilderness occupied ten acres; " le lacke trees which beare no fruit, but only a plesaunte flowre," are mentioned among the rarities contained in it; as are also yew and lime trees. In the year 1534, Fitzhcrbert, the father of horticultural writers, published his " Booke of Husbandrye." 4. Queen Elizabeth was both a horticulturist and a florist, if we may believe a poet celebrating majesty : Cultor herbarum, memor atgue forunt During her reign, Dydimus Mountain published the " Gardener's Labyrinth ;" Hyll, the " Profitable Arte of Gardening ;" and Leonard Mascall, (the introducer of several good pippins,) the "Arte and Manner how to plant and graffe all sorts of trees," Ste. : While Barnabe Googe, Esq. translated the " Fonre Bookes of Husban drie of Conradus Heresbachius." • All of these works are printed in black letter, and have become extremely rare. With the exception of the first mentioned, they arc, generally speaking, little more than compilations from Varro, Columella, Palladius, Cornelius Agrippa, Car danus, and some old French and Italian writers. In Eliza beth's days, carnations were, it is said, first cultivated by the Flemings at Norwich, and nearly at the same time tulip roots were brought from Vienna to England. Orange
and lemon trees now became known. The " Herbal', or Historic of Plants," by John Gcrardc, first appeared in 1597; and a second edition, enlarged and improved by Johnston, came out about forty years afterwards. It may, in passing, be remarked as somewhat curious, that so distinguished a writer as Gerarde, and a piece so well known and frequently quoted as his "Iferball," should not be mentioned by Professor Martyn, in his chronologi cal list of authors and books on gardening. Towards the close of the 16th century, Sir Hugh Platt published " The Jewel-House of Arte and a little book not des titute of merit ; and early in the following century ap peared a posthumous work of his, called "The Garden of Eden." 5: A fine "garden was formed at Theohald's, near Wal tham Abbey, by James VI. (1. of England). In the year 1640, about thirty years after the formation of garden, it was described by Mandelslo* as a large square, sur rounded with fruit-tree walls, containing also espalier trees on some sort of trellises, and ornamental arches of trees ; besides a parterre for flowers.
6. His son Charles I. seems to have patronized garden ing. He appointed the celebrated Parkinson his her harist. In 1629, appeared the first edition of this man's great work in folio, entitled "Paradisi in sole Paradisus terrestris ; or a Garden of all sortes of pleasant Flowers, with a Kitchen Garden of all manner of Herbs and Roots, and an Orchard of all sort of Fruit-bearing Trees," Sec. This may be considered as the first general book of Eng lish gardening possessing the character of originality. From his lists of flowers, shrubs, and fruits, the state of our gardens at that period may be pretty accurately guess ed. The laurel or bay-cherry was then very rare, and considered as a tender plant, being defended "from the bitterness of the winter by casting a blanket over the top thereof ;" and the larch tree was only nursed up as a curiosity. For the culture of melons, he recommends an open hot-bed on a sloping bank, covering the melons oc casionally with straw,—the method practised in the north of France at this day. Cauliflowers, celery, and finochio, were then great rarities. Virginia potatoes (our common sort) were then rare ; but Canada potatoes (our Jerusalem artichoke) were in common use. The variety of fruits described, or at least mentioned, appears very great. Of apples, there are 53 sorts ; of pears, 64 ; plums, 61 ; peaches, 21 ; nectarines, 5 ; apricots, 6 ; cherries, no fewer than 36 ; grape vines, 23; figs, 3 ; with quinces, medlars, almonds, walnuts, filberds, and the common small fruits. The number of approved apples, pears, plums, and chei ries, at the present day. is not nearly so large. Of florists' flowers, he mentions about 50 varieties of hyacinth ; above 60 anemonies ; but only 20 ranunculuses.