3 evergreen trees, from 15 ft. to 30 ft., the box, the yew, and the holly. 65 deciduous shrubs, and very low trees, from 5 ft. to 18 ft.; including 21 roses and 32 willows. 26 deciduous shrubs, from 1 ft. to 5 ft.; including 6 roses and 10 willows. 5 evergreen shrubs, from 5 ft. to 15 ft. 1 deciduous climber, the clematis. 3 deciduous trailers; the Ròsa arvénsis, the Solanum Dulcamara, and the Rùbus cæ`sius. 13 evergreen shrubs, or fruticulose plants, from 6 in. to, 1 ft. in height; such as the Vaccínium Vìtis idæ`a, the ericas, Andrómeda poliifòlia, &c. 10 deciduous shrubs, or fruticulose plants, from 3 in. to 1 ft. in height; such as Cómarum palústre, Vaccínium Myrtillus, Salix reticulata, prostrata, &c. SECT. II. Of the Foreign Trees and Shrubs introduced into the British Isles. IF wild plants are said to follow those animals to which they supply food, cultivated plants are the followers of man in a state of civilisation. In all cases of taking possession of a new country, the first step of the settlers has been to introduce those vegetables which, in their own country, they knew to be the most productive of human food; because the natural resource of man for subsistence is the ground. In all temperate climates, the plants of necessity may be considered to be the cereal grasses and the edible roots. Trees, with the exception of such as bear edible fruit, are not introduced till a considerable period afterwards; because all new and uncivilised countries abound in forests of timber. It can only be when this timber becomes scarce, or when wealth and taste have increased to such an extent as to create a desire for new trees as objects of curiosity, that the practice takes place of cultivating indigenous trees, or of introducing new ones. Hence we find that, in England, all the timber required for the purposes of construction and fuel was obtained from the native forests and copses, till about the time of Henry VIII. In this reign and the next, Holinshed informs us that plantations of trees began to be made for purposes of utility; and we find, in the same reign, that attention began to be paid to the trees and shrubs of foreign countries, and that some few, even at that early period in the history of D British tree culture, began to be introduced into our gardens, as objects of rarity and value. The ornamental trees, or the trees of curiosity, that would first be introduced into any country after those that recommended themselves by their fruit or their medicinal virtues, would be such as were generally planted about houses and in gardens, or such as bore conspicuous seeds. Hence the cypress, the bay, the box, the elm, the lime, and the plane, as being domestic shrubs and trees; and the chestnut, the ilex, the walnut, and the pine, as being trees with conspicuous seeds, would, we may suppose, be those that were first brought over by the Romans, or by the heads of religious houses, ambassadors, or travellers. In tracing the introduction of foreign trees into this country, from the earliest ages to the present time, we shall first collect such notices as we have been able to obtain of the period from the invasion of the country by the Romans, to the end of the 15th century; and, next, take in succession the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. SUBSECT. 1. Of the Foreign Trees and Shrubs introduced into Britain by the Romans, and during the Middle Ages, to the End of the 15th Century. THERE can be no doubt whatever that the Romans introduced most of our cultivated vegetables and fruits. Some curious proofs of this are occasionally found in the springing up of Italian plants in the neighbourhood of the ruins of Roman villas, where ground, which had long remained in a state of rest, had been turned over in search of antiquities. Though, as far as we know, no trees or shrubs of Italy have sprung up in this manner from dormant seeds; yet there cannot be a doubt but that some of the trees and shrubs of the Romans would be cultivated in the gardens of their governors and generals, most of whom, it is understood, must have been practically acquainted with husbandry. Such trees would not only be interesting to them as reminding them of their native country, but they would serve to decorate and distinguish their residences, and command the admiration of the Roman army and of the natives. We have seen, in the preceding chapter (p. 22.), that most of our fruit trees, and in all probability the plane, chestnut, walnut, lime, elm, and box, were introduced by the Romans. Many trees and shrubs introduced by the Romans, or by the monks of the middle ages, may have been afterwards lost; because this is, sooner or later, the case with all neglected plants that are placed in a climate which will not enable them to ripen their seeds. In the 9th century, during the reign of Charlemagne, some exertions appear to have been made in France for the extension of orchards; but nothing has reached us respecting the barren trees and ornamental shrubs of that period, either in France or England. In the tenth century, monasteries and other religious establishments began to abound in the country; and the monks and clergy, who were their principal occupants, were generally either natives of foreign countries, or had been educated in Italy. The occupants of monasteries have, in all times, been attached to gardening; and, among the plants which those of Britain probably introduced from Italy, there can be little doubt that fruit trees were included, and probably, also, some trees of ornament, and shrubs. The sweet bay and the arbutus, if they were not introduced by the Romans, were, in all probability, brought over by the monks. It is conjectured by Dr. Walker (Essays on Nat. Hist.), that some trees and shrubs were introduced from the Holy Land during the time of the crusades; and one of these, he thinks, was the English elm. In the dispute already noticed (p. 23.), between Daines Barrington and Dr. Ducarel, on the question of the sweet chestnut being indigenous, the latter refers to a record, dated in the time of Henry II., by which the Earl of Hereford grants to Flexby Abbey the tithe of all his chestnuts in the Forest of Dean. It appears highly probable that the chestnut, being so productive of human food in Italy in the time of the Romans, would be introduced by them, wherever they went, as one of the most useful of trees. In the beginning of the 13th century, the apple appears to have been cultivated to some extent in Norfolk. In the 6th of King John (1205), Robert de Evermere was found to hold his lordship of Redham and Stokesly, in Norfolk, by petty serjeantry, the paying of 200 pearmains, and 4 hogsheads (modios) of wine made of pearmains, into the exchequer, at the feast of St. Michael yearly. (Blomfield's Norfolk, ii. 242. 4to edit., 1810.) At the beginning of the 15th century, the rose appears to have been not only known, but in extensive cultivation. Sir William Clopton granted to Thomas Smyth a piece of ground called Dokmed we in Haustede, for the annual payment of a rose, at the nativity of St. John the Baptist, to Sir William and his heirs, in lieu of all services, dated at Haustede, on Sunday next before the Feast of All Saints, 3 Henry IV. (1402). (Cullum's Hawsted, p. 117.) In explanation of this deed, it may first be observed that ancient deeds are often dated on a Sunday, being executed in churches or churchyards, for the greater notoriety in the second place, the rose was then in much more extensive use in cultivated society than it is now, when its place is partly occupied by the great variety of other flowers now in cultivation. The demand for roses formerly was so great, that bushels of them were frequently paid by vassals to their lords, both in France and England. The single rose paid as an acknowledgment was the diminutive representation of a bushel of roses; as a single peppercorn, which is still a reserved rent, is of a pound of peppercorns, a payment originally of some worth, descending by degrees to a mere formality. (Histoire de la Vie privée des François, ii. 221., and Cullum's Hawsted, 117, 118.) The well-known story of the quarrel in the Temple Gardens, about 1450, which gave rise to the distinctions of the white and red rose in the wars of York and Lancaster, is in unison with the foregoing authorities. Towards the end of this century, parks for hunting became common in England, and bushes in gardens were clipped; but we have no evidence that in either case foreign trees or shrubs were made use of; unless, with Daines Barrington, we reckon the yew tree as such. The yew is mentioned in these times as subjected to the topiary operations of the gardener; and there appears little doubt that it was then reckoned one of the principal garden shrubs, and almost the only evergreen one. trees of the parks were, in all probability, wholly indigenous, and were left to propagate themselves, by shedding their seeds among rough herbage; and the extent of surface they covered was allowed to be curtailed by deer and other animals, or to extend itself, according to the abundance or scarcity of pasture. The Of the foreign trees and shrubs of Scotland and Ireland, at this remote period, scarcely any thing is known. James I. is said to have been an amateur of the fine arts, and to have been fond of gardens, and of grafting fruit trees. James III. had gardens in the neighbourhood of Stirling Castle; and the pear trees and chestnuts, which are known to have existed in Scotland at that period, may have been introduced from France, with which country Scotland was then, and for many years afterwards, on intimate terms, or by the Roman clergy. Dr. Walker mentions a sweet chestnut at Finhaven in Forfarshire, which, in 1760, was conjectured to be upwards of 500 years old, and which is supposed to have been the oldest planted tree in Scotland. (Essays, p. 29.) Still less is known of the introduction of foreign trees and shrubs into Ireland. The arbutus is thought by some to be indigenous; and it is certain that in England, in the 15th century, it was called the Irish arbutus. By others, however, it is said to have been introduced into Killarney by the monks of St. Finnian, who founded the abbey of that name on the banks of the lake, in the 6th century. SUBSECT. 2. Of the Foreign Trees and Shrubs introduced into Britain in the 16th Century. THERE is no record which throws any light on the subject of the introduction of foreign trees into England previously to the time of Henry VIII. Fitzherbert, in 1523, wrote on planting and preserving trees for timber and fuel; and Googe, who translated Heresbachius in 1578, notices the same subjects. In Turner's Names of Herbes in 1548, the trees mentioned are, the almond, the apricot, the pomegranate, Cistus salviæfòlius, rosemary, thyme, white jasmine, Spártium júnceum, the fig, the oriental plane, the elm, the sweet bay, the common black mulberry, the stone pine, the spruce fir, the Cupréssus sempervirens, and the savin. In his Herbal of 1562, he adds the peach, the walnut, and the rue. In 1568 he adds the lavender. It appears that foreign trees and shrubs were not altogether neglected in the royal gardens, in the time of Henry VIII.; since, in a survey of the royal palace at Nonsuch, in Surrey, in the succeeding century, there were, in the wilderness, lilacs, lime trees, yews, junipers, and hollies. L'Obel, who published his Adversaria in 1570, includes the Jasminum frùticans, the Pistácia officinàrum, and the Genísta Scórpius, among his woody plants. Tusser, in 1573, mentions the quince and the Damask rose. Grindal, Bishop of London, is said by Fuller to have introduced the German tamarisk, about the year 1560; but, according to Camden and Hakluyt, better authorities, about 1582. Grindal was visited at Fulham by the queen, who complained that the bishop had so surrounded his house with trees, that she could not enjoy the prospect from her chamber windows. Such excellent grapes were produced at Fulham by this prelate, that some were sent every year to the queen. (Strype's Life of Grindal.) Wimbledon House, which was rebuilt by Sir Thomas Cecil in 1588, and surveyed by order of the parliament in 1649, was celebrated for its gardens and trees. In the several gardens, which consisted of mazes, wildernesses, knots, alleys, &c., are mentioned a great variety of fruit trees, and some shrubs, particularly "a faire bay tree," valued at 17., and "one very faire tree, called the Irish arbutis, very lovely to look upon, and worth 17. 10s." (Lysons, i. 397.) Gerard, the first edition of whose Catalogue is dated 1596, appears to have had several foreign trees and shrubs in his garden in Holborn; and, among others, althæa frutex, the laburnum, the Judas tree, six different kinds of roses, the laurustinus, the Diospyros Lòtus, the white mulberry, the nettle tree, the pinaster, the arbor vitæ, the yucca, and several others, as may be seen by the list below. |