Some of the flowers introduced into our gardens, and now cultivated
either on account of their beauty or the pleasantness of their smell,
have been procured from plants which grew wild, and which have been
changed, or, according to the opinion of florists, improved by the
art of the gardener. The greater part of them however came originally
from distant countries, where they grow, in as great perfection as
ours, without the assistance of man. Though we often find mention of
flowers in the works of the Greeks and the Romans, it appears that
they were contented with those which grew in their own neighbourhood.
I do not remember to have read that they ever took the trouble to form
gardens for the particular purpose of rearing in them foreign flowers
or plants. But even supposing that I may be mistaken, for I do not
pretend to have examined this subject very minutely, I think I may with
great probability venture to assert, that the modern taste for flowers
came from Persia to Constantinople, and was imported thence to Europe,
for the first time, in the sixteenth century. At any rate, we find
that the greater part of the productions of our flower-gardens were
conveyed to us by that channel. Clusius and his friends in particular,
contributed very much to excite this taste; and the new plants brought
from both the Indies by the travellers who then continued still more
frequently to visit these countries, tended to increase it. That period
also produced some skilful gardeners, who carried on a considerable
trade with the roots and seeds of flowers; and these likewise assisted
to render it more general. Among these were John and Vespasian Robin,
gardeners to Henry IV. of France, and Emanuel Sweert, gardener to the
emperor Rodolphus II., from whom the botanists at that time procured
many rarities, as appears from different passages of their works. As
this taste for flowers prevails more at present than at any former
period, a short history of some of the objects of it may not be
disagreeable, perhaps, to many of my readers.
Simon de Tovar, a Spanish physician, brought the tuberose to Europe
before the year 1594 from the East Indies, where it grows wild in
Java and Ceylon, and sent some roots of it to Bernard Paludanus, who
first made the flower publicly known in his Annotations on Linschoten’s
Voyage[1592]. The full tuberoses were first procured from seed by one
Le Cour, at Leyden, who kept them scarce for some years, by destroying
the roots, that they might not become common[1593]. The propagation of
them in most countries is attended with difficulties; but in Italy,
Sicily and Spain, it requires no trouble; and at present the Genoese
send a great many roots to England, Holland and Germany. The oldest
botanists classed them among the hyacinths, and the name _Polianthes
tuberosa_ was given them by Linnæus in his Hortus Cliffortianus.
The auricula, _Primula auricula_, grows wild among the long
moss covered with snow, on the Lower Alps of Switzerland and
Steyermark[1594], whence it was brought to our gardens, where, by art
and accident, it has produced more varieties than any other species
of flower. I do not know who first transplanted it from its native
soil. Pluche[1595] says only that some roots were pulled up by Walloon
merchants, and carried to Brussels. This much, at any rate, is certain,
that it was first cultivated with care by the Flemings, who were very
successful in propagating it. Professor Weismantel, who deserves to be
ranked amongst the principal writers on flowers[1596], says that the
auricula was described and celebrated by Ovid, Pliny and Columella; but
this I much doubt. The botanists even of the seventeenth century, who
searched for plants in the works of the ancients with great diligence,
and who took the liberty of making very bold assertions, were not able
to find any name that would correspond with the auricula; for the
conjecture of Fabius Columna, that it is the _alisma_ of Dioscorides,
is highly improbable, as that Grecian author extols his plant, which
was fond of water, on account of its medicinal virtues only. In the
time of Clusius, most of the varieties of the auricula were scarce.
The common fritillary, or chequered lily, _Fritillaria Meleagris_, was
first observed in some parts of France, Hungary, Italy, and other warm
countries[1597], and introduced into gardens about the middle of the
sixteenth century. At first it was called _Lilium variegatum_; but
Noel Capperon, an apothecary at Orleans, who collected a great many
scarce plants, gave it the name of _Fritillaria_, because the red or
reddish-brown spots of the flower form regular squares, much like those
of a chess-board. It was called _meleagris_ by Dodonæus, because the
feathers of that fowl are variegated almost in the same manner[1598].
The roots of the magnificent crown imperial, _Fritillaria imperialis_,
were about the middle of the sixteenth century brought from Persia to
Constantinople, and were carried thence to the emperor’s garden at
Vienna, from which they were dispersed all over Europe. This flower was
first known by the Persian name _tusac_, until the Italians gave it
that of _corona imperialis_[1599], or crown imperial. I have somewhere
read that it has been imagined that the figure of it is to be found
represented on coins of Herod, and that, on this account, it has been
considered as the lily so much celebrated in the Scripture.
The Persian lily, _Fritillaria Persica_, which is nearly related to
it, was made known almost about the same time. The bulbs or roots
were brought from Susa to Constantinople, and for that reason it was
formerly called _Lilium Susianum_[1600].
African and French marigolds, _Tagetes erecta_ and _patula_, were,
according to the account of Dodonæus and others, brought from Africa
to Europe, at the time when the emperor Charles V. carried his arms
against Tunis. This however is improbable; for these plants are
indigenous in South America, and were known to botanists before that
period under the name of _Caryophyllus Indicus_, from which is derived
the French appellation _œillet d’Inde_. Cordus calls them, from their
native country, _Tanacetum Peruvianum_[1601].
Among the most beautiful ornaments of our gardens is the belladonna
lily, _Amaryllis formosissima_, the flower of which, composed of six
petals, is of a deep-red colour, and in a strong light, or when the sun
shines upon it, has an agreeable yellow lustre like gold. The first
roots of it ever seen in Europe were procured in 1593, on board a ship
which had returned from South America, by Simon de Tovar, a physician
at Seville. In the year following, he sent a description of the flower
to Clusius; and as he had at the same time transmitted some roots to
Bernard Paludanus and count d’Aremberg, the former sent a dried flower,
and the latter an accurate drawing of it to Clusius, who published it
in 1601[1602]. One of the Robins gave in 1608 a larger and more correct
figure, which was afterwards copied by Bry, Parkinson, and Rudbeck; but
a complete description, with a good engraving, was published in 1742,
by Linnæus[1603], who in 1737 gave to that genus the name by which it
is known at present[1604]. Sweert, Bauhin, and Rudbeck, are evidently
mistaken in assigning the East Indies as the original country of this
plant; and Broke[1605], who was not a botanist, but only a florist, is
equally wrong in making it a native of the Levant. Tovar received it
from South America, where it was found by Plumier and Barrere, and at
a later period by Thiery de Menonville[1606]. At first it was classed
with the narcissus, and it was afterwards called _lilio-narcissus_,
because its flower resembled that of the lily, and its roots those of
the narcissus. It was named _flos Jacobæus_, because some imagined that
they discovered in it a likeness to the badge of the knights of the
order of St. James in Spain, whose founder, in the fourteenth century,
could not indeed have been acquainted with this beautiful amaryllis.
Another species of this genus is the Guernsey lily, _Amaryllis
Sarniensis_, which in the magnificence of its flower is not inferior
to the former. This plant was brought from Japan, where it was found
by Kæmpfer, and also by Thunberg[1607], during his travels some years
ago in that country. It was first cultivated in the beginning of the
seventeenth century in the garden of John Morin, at Paris, where it
blowed, for the first time, on the 7th of October 1634. It was then
made known by Jacob Cornutus, under the name of _narcissus Japonicus
flore rutilo_[1608]. After this it was again noticed by John Ray[1609],
in 1665, who called it the _Guernsey lily_, which name it still very
properly bears. A ship returning from Japan was wrecked on the coast
of Guernsey, and a number of the bulbs of this plant, which were on
board, being cast on shore, took root in that sandy soil. As they soon
increased and produced beautiful flowers, they were observed by the
inhabitants, and engaged the attention of Mr. Hatton, the governor’s
son, whose botanical knowledge is highly spoken of by Ray, and who sent
roots of them to several of his friends who were fond of cultivating
curious plants[1610]. Of this elegant flower Dr. Douglass gave a
description and figure in a small treatise published in 1725, which is
quoted by Linnæus in his Bibliotheca, but not by Haller.
Of the comprehensive genus _Ranunculus_, florists, to speak in a
botanical sense, have obtained a thousand different kinds[1611]; for,
according to the manner in which they are distinguished by gardeners,
the varieties are infinite and increase almost every summer, as those
with half-full flowers bear seed which produce plants that from time
to time yield new kinds that exhibit greater or uncommon beauties.
The principal part of them, however, and those most esteemed, were
brought to us from the Levant. Some were carried from that part of the
world so early as in the time of the crusades; but most of them have
been introduced into Europe from Constantinople since the end of the
sixteenth century, particularly the Persian ranunculus (_R. asiaticus_,
Linn.), the varieties of which, if I am not mistaken, hold at present
the first rank. Clusius describes both the single and the full flowers
as new rarities. This flower was in the highest repute during the time
of Mahomet IV. His Grand Vizir, Cara Mustapha, well-known by his hatred
against the Christians and the siege of Vienna in 1683, wishing to turn
the sultan’s thoughts to some milder amusement than that of the chase,
for which he had a strong passion, diverted his attention to flowers;
and, as he remarked that the emperor preferred the ranunculus to all
others, he wrote to the different pachas throughout the whole kingdom
to send him seeds or roots of the most beautiful kinds. The pachas of
Candia, Cyprus, Aleppo, and Rhodes paid most regard to this request;
and the elegant flowers which they transmitted to court were shut
up in the seraglio as unfortunate offerings to the voluptuousness of
the sultan, till some of them, by the force of money, were at length
freed from their imprisonment. The ambassadors from the European courts
in particular, made it their business to procure roots of as many
kinds as they could, which they sent to their different sovereigns.
Marseilles, which at that period carried on the greatest trade to the
Levant, received on this account these flowers very early; and a person
there, of the name of Malaval, is said to have contributed very much to
disperse them all over Europe[1612].
[Among the favourites of the present day may be instanced,--
The varied and social Pelargoniums (commonly called geraniums), which
from their capability of living in the confined air of rooms almost
form a part of the household furniture in this country. They are
nearly all members of the Cape of Good Hope. A large number however of
those with which we are familiar are not distinct species, but mere
varieties. Geraniums were first introduced into this country at the
end of the seventeenth century. Pelargoniums differ from geraniums
principally in the irregularity of their flowers, their shrubby stems
and tubular nectaries. They were first separated by L’Heritier.
The Dahlia, an universal favourite; its exquisite symmetry, when
perfect, and the size of its flowers rendering it one of the most
beautiful of our garden-plants. It is generally stated to have been
introduced by Lady Holland in 1804; but it was introduced many years
before that period, and was only brought from Madrid by Lady Holland,
who apparently did not know that it was already in the country.
The first species of Dahlia known to Europeans was _D. superflua_
(_variabilis_, De C.); it was discovered in Mexico by Humboldt in 1789,
and sent to Professor Cavanilles, of the Botanic Garden at Madrid, who
named the genus in honour of the Swedish Professor Dahl. Cavanilles
sent a plant of it to the marchioness of Bute. From this species,
nearly all the varieties known in our gardens have been raised. There
are now in England ten or twelve species. including innumerable
varieties.
The Rose, which is one of our oldest favourites, and has been known
from time immemorial among the civilized nations of Europe and Asia. It
occurs in almost every country of the northern hemisphere, both in the
Old and New World. It is not found in South America nor in Australia.
The name is derived from _rhos_, which signifies red in Armorican,
whence ῥόδον, Greek, and _rosa_, Latin. More than one hundred species
have been described, and more than two thousand varieties may be
procured in the nurseries.
And lastly, the Calceolarias, which are natives of South America.
Their great variety has rendered them especial favourites. They abound
in Chili and Peru. The name is derived from _calceolus_, from the
resemblance of the corolla (coloured part of the flower) to a slipper.
In 1820, half-a-dozen species only were known in this country. During
the next ten or twelve years, five or six more species were introduced
from Chili. Innumerable hybrids are now raised every year, varying in
colour through every possible shade of crimson, brown, orange, purple,
pink, and yellow: there are one or two of a pure white colour.]