7. In the time of the Commonwealth, Walter Blith pro duced rather an ingenious work, with the quaint title of "English Improver improved, or the Survey of Husbandry surveyed ;" and Ralph Austen published a " Treatise of Fruit Trees," also a book of merit.
8. Alter the Restoration, Charles II. brought over Le Notre, the favourite gardener of Louis XI V. and designer of the gardens of Versailles, to lay out and plant St James's and Greenwich Parks, which still remain very creditable monuments of his taste. Rose, who was gardener to Charles, had studied the art in France. It is remarked by the Honourable Daises Barrington, that at the instal lation dinner at Windsor, 23d April 1667, cherries, straw berries, and ice-creams, were produced, skewing that the king possessed both hot-houses and ice-houses, and that his gardener was an adept at forcing, for strawberries require considerable nicety of management.
9. From about the middle to the end of the 17th cen tury, the known John Evelyn, Esq. was the chief promoter of almost all horticultural improvements, form ing an era in the history of British planting• and garden ing. Soon after returning from his travels on the con tinent, he translated "Le Jardinier _Francois, instructing how to cultivate all sorts of fruit-trees and herbs for the garden." In 1664 appeared his celebrated " Sylva, or a Discourse of Forest Trees ; with Pomona, an appendix concerning fruit-trees ; Acetaria, a discussion of salads," Sec. His " Calendariunz Hortense, or Gardener's Alma nack, directing what he is to do monthly throughout the year," was also at first added to the Sylva, but was soon afterwards published separately, and went through many editions. This useful manual laid the foundation of the successive Gardener's Calendars which have been pub lished by Miller, Abercrombie, and Nicol. In 1693, his translation of Quintinye's "Complete Gardener" made its appearance, in folio ; and, six years afterwards, he ushered into the world an octavo edition, "abridged and improved by George London and Henry Wise," two of the most distinguished gardeners and nurserymen of their day, and whose names have been consecrated by Addison, in his paper on gardening, in the " Spectator," (No. 477.) They had both been apprentices of old Rose, and succeeded him in the office of royal gardener. They converted an old gravel pit in Kensington Gardens into a picturesque hollow of foliage, producing an effect in gardening which the critic compares to the sublime in epic poetry, and ex claims, " Wise and London arc our heroic poets !" It is curious, that while the labours of Evelyn justly placed him at the head of the improvers of his time, he should have missed an opportunity, fairly placed within his reach, of handing down his name as the greatest horticultural benefactor of Britain. In March 1662, it was proposed
to the Royal Society to recommend the cultivating of potatoes, with the view of preventing the recurrence of famine ; Evelyn was particularly consulted, and was re quested to mention the proposal at the end of his Sylva, then announced for publication. He does not seem to have complied with this request, nor to have paid any attention to the culture of the plant : he merely mentions it in his Acetaria, and dismisses it with apparent indif ference. This American plant, however, has proved a treasure to this country, L. compared with which the mines of Potosi are worthless." 10. During the period of which we are speaking, seve ral books on gardening came out, some of them coun tenanced by Evelyn, and others in which he took no share. One of the earliest of these was the translation of an essay on the management of fruit-trees, by the Sieur Lc Gendre, curate of Henonville, " wherein is treated of nurseries, wall-fruits, hedges of fruit-trees, dwarf-trees, high stan ders," &c. He wrote from the experience of a long life, the leisure of which had been spent in the " ordering of fruit-trees." He was one of the first who attended to the proper training and pruning of wall trees; he boldly condemns the absurd taste, then prevalent, of cutting fruit-trees into the shape of lions or pyramids, but he was not able to divest himself of the doctrine of the moon's in fluence, and the necessity of planting and pruning only at certain periods of her waxing and waning. About the same time, Dr Robert Sherrock published "The His tory of the propagation and improvement of vegetables by the concurrence of art and nature ;" a work contain ing a reasonable portion of information, disguised with a good deal of pedantry. Soon after, John Rea, gent. published his " Flora, or a complete Florilege," folio, in three parts : " 1. Flora, treating of the choicest plants, flowers and fruits, that will endure our winters ; 2. Ceres, containing such plants or flowers as are yearly, or every other year, raised from seeds ; 3. Pomona, treating of the best garden fruits, of evergreens, and flowering shrubs." This was followed, first, by a " and then by a " Systcma Horticulturx," by J. W. (John \Vor lidge) gent ; and by the publication of the " English Gardener," by Leonard Meager, above thirty years a practitioner in the art of gardening." This last contains a good deal of useful information : it is divided into three parts ; I. Of planting stocks, fruit-trees, and shrubs; 2. Kitchen garden ; and, 3. Garden of pleasure.—The second volume of Sir William Temple's Nliscellaneous Works, it may be mentioned, contains a curious account of the state of gardening in England in the close of the 17th century.