OLD ESSEX GARDENERS AND THEIR GARDENS. 87
"Thorndon Hall in Essex." He himself was particularly fond
of white lilac and "directed his gardeners to gather none but
"white seed; he raised more than five thousand plants that
"flowered in 1741, and out of this number but about twenty
"cams white, the rest all blue, so that white seems to be only a
"seminal variety from the blue."
The next gardener, RICHARD WARNER, is better known,
and there are several references to him in the Essex Naturalist.
Born in London, he came as a boy of eleven to Harts at Woodford.
He entered Wadham College, Oxford, and studied law, but having
ample means did not practice overmuch at any time.
He was interested in local plants as well as garden plants, as
we know from his Plantae Woodfordienses. In the preface to
this he mentions twenty-two "Gentlemen, his Friends and
Companions," to whom he is indebted, and the list includes
several who deserve a passing reference. One of them is Philip
Miller, nominated by Sloane to be Gardener at the Chelsea Physic
Garden and one of the most famous English gardeners; others are
William Hudson, author of Flora Anglica, and Sir William Watson,
Electrician, Apothecary and Physician; there is also James
Gordon the nurseryman of Mile End, and his son. Apparently a
good deal of Warner's material for his book was obtained when
the apothecary students came herborizing, which they usually
did once in the season, in the environs of Woodford, "where,
"after the researches of the day, at the table of Mr. Warner, the
"products of Flora were displayed." Warner is best known
in horticulture by his introduction of Gardenia. John Ellis
(c. 1710-76), a friend of every naturalist of his time, and, strange
to say, the chief correspondent of Alexander Garden, a Doctor
living in South Carolina, wrote to Linnaeus in 1758: "Mr.
"Collinson, Ehret, and I were the other day at Mr. Warner's, a
very curious gentleman, at Woodford near this City, to see his
"rare plant like a Jasmine, with a large double white flower, very
"odiferous, which he received about four years ago from
"the Cape of Good Hope. The flowers are so large, that a
"specimen, which he gave me to dissect, was four inches across
from the extremities of the limb.
"This Mr. Miller has described to be a Jasmine, in his
"Dictionary now publishing, and in his figure of Plants. . . . Mr.