Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden

The knowledge of the very existence of these beautifully illustrated Herbals and old gardening books is even now limited, though they are within reach of everybody at the Natural History Museum. Probably the reason why these books so suddenly fell out of all knowledge is owing to the letterpress, which is often in Latin, having, for one reason or another, become obsolete. No one now consults Herbals medically, or goes to old books for botanical instruction. 50 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN I will arrange the account of my books in chronological order, according to the date of their publication :— 1614. 'Hortus Floridus, by Eembertus Dodonaeus and Carolus Clusius.' This is the earliest gardening book I possess. It was printed in Amsterdam, and is a real representation of cultivated garden flowers, not a Herbal in any sense. It has a frontispiece with the portraits of the two authors, which was common enough in the old Dutch books of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Jupiter and Diana are represented on either side of the page, with wreaths of flowers hung along the top, and plants growing in pots placed at the bottom. The title of the book is in the centre. The plates are not coloured, but the flowers are very well drawn. There are two charming pictures of Dutch gardens sur- rounded by an arched wall with creepers, straight paths, and beds edged with box. In one a woman is gathering Tulips, dressed in the quaint fashion of the period, and a man is leaning over a wooden or stone railing looking at her. The number and variety of exotic flowers figured in the book is surprising. Besides all the ordinary spring bulbs which are now grown, there are Sun- flowers, called Indian Golden Suns (Helianthuses, of course, all came from America), Cannas, Marvels of Peru (called Merveille d'Inde a diver ses couleurs), Nicotiana, etc. Insects are introduced on several of the plates, and in one or two instances mice are feeding on the bulbs which lie on the ground. The African Agapanthus is called Narcissus marinus exoticus. Both the Helle- bores are here, and all the flowers are so well drawn as to be perfectly recognisable. The book is an oblong shape, bound in unstiffened white parchment. It is well preserved, though some Philistine lady of the last century has, with patient industry, pricked some of the flowers and insects all round for the purpose of taking the out- MARCH 51 lines for needlework. The book historically is certainly interesting. The text is in Latin, but even the unlearned reader is able to realise how horticulturally perfect may have been the gardens of Europe where Louis XIII. of France played as a child, and the number and richness of the flowers which our Prince Charles of Wales (his future brother-in-law) may have gazed at from his palace windows or enjoyed when gathered. This, perhaps, helped to nourish the great taste for art which Charles I., more than all our other kings, developed later in life. 1629. I have both the Parkinsons. The first pub- lished of the two has the following curious descriptive inscription written on a shield at the bottom of the title- page :- PARADISI IN SOLE PARADISUS TERRESTRIS. A GARDEN OF ALL SORTS OF PLEASANT FLOWERS WHICH OUR ENGLISH AYRE WILL PERMITT TO BE NOURSED UP : WITH A KITCHEN GARDEN OF ALL MANNER OF HERBES, RAVIES, AND FRUITES FOR MEATS OR SAUSE USED WITH US, AND