68
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
possible to be fairly certain about the portion which served as the
flower garden of William Coys.
Within recent years we have gained a good deal of information
about the contents of the garden through the work of Dr. R. T.
Gunther. By his researches into the papers of John Goodyer
(1592-1664) which were bequeathed to Magdalen College, Oxford,
he has been able not only to present this eminent botanist in
proper perspective, but also to shed light on the activities of
several of the botanical friends of this "forgotten Botanist of
the seventeenth century." In his Early British Botanists and
their Gardens, Dr. Gunther reprints four2 manuscript lists of the
plants grown at Stubbers. The first, "Mr. Coys his garden 24
and 25 of March 1616, 1617," is the oldest known manuscript
list of an English garden in which the plants are given scientific
names ; the list is in Goodyer's handwriting, but as he visited
the garden the names were probably supplied to him by Coys.
In later years Goodyer received many plants and seeds from Coys,
grew them in his garden at Droxford, Hampshire, and described
them in detail when they flowered. There are two lists, which
include plants given in 1621 and 1622, and a longer list made
between 1618 and 1625, containing 324 plants marked 'C It
would be an interesting exercise to attempt to trace the origins
of these plants. But as Parkinson wrote, "The greatest double
"yellow bastard Daffodill, or John Tradescant his great Rose
"Daffodill. This Prince of Daffodils (belongeth primarily to John
"Tradescant, as the first founder thereof) . . . whether raised
''from seed, or gained from beyond Sea, I know not." It would
probably be easier to decide nowadays whether a plant was of
foreign origin, but it would be now much more difficult than in
Parkinson's days to trace the manner of an exotic's introduction,
for then, as now, those with gardens were wont to share their
treasures. One name, however, is mentioned in connexion with
Coys. He is said to have received a set of seeds collected by
William Boel, "a Lowe Country man," in Portugal and Spain
in 1608. Parkinson also received some, and records when
speaking of species of Trifolium, that "both these sorts Boel
"brought with him out of Spaine, in the yeare 1608, and entituled
2 There is also a list of twelve plants referred to by de I'Obel as growing at Stubbers in 1605.
(Stirpium illustrationes ed. W. How, 1655.)