OLD ESSEX GARDENERS AND THEIR GARDENS. 95
"but not all. I do not want to have a specimen of every thing
"that grows, in my garden; but plants that are remarkable for
"their figure, their fragrance, or their use, are exceedingly
"acceptable.
"I must own that with this inclination to increase my collec-
"tion of plants, I have very little time to spend amongst them.
"I see them now and then, transiently. But I look forwards,
"and that is not impossible but I may live long enough to
"think it proper to decline all business. Then an amusement
"of this kind will have its use; to lessen the tediousness
"of old age, and call me out to a little exercise, when subsiding
"vigour prompts to too much indulgence."
Meanwhile he writes to Marshall (15.3.1770) asking for Ferns
and Polypodiums, water plants and bulbous plants, "as they
"flower early for the most part: and all sweet-scented or showy
"flowers, or such as are of known efficacy in the cure of some
"diseases." He doubts not that there are many curious
herbaceous plants still unnoticed because of the greater objects
of shrubs and trees. "Perhaps thou will be surprised, when I
"tell thee one of my principal inducements to make these collec-
"tions. It is, that when I grow old, and am unfit for the
"duties of a most active life, I may have some little amusement
"in store to fill up those hours, when bodily infirmity may
"require some external consolations."
He writes in February, 1771, that having all the common
American plants in plenty he will not trouble for more to be
sent except to make up defects, and in April he repeats that he
is in possession of most of the common North American plants,
"but there are new discoveries made every day." He asks for
early spring flowers of any kind, or plants and shrubs that are
either useful or curious in their appearance. "A curious Fern
"is as acceptable to me as the most showy plant." An
interesting light is thrown on his character by his statement,
I am economist enough to save the covers of my letters,
"instead of throwing them into the fire. I give them to my
"gardener to wrap his seeds in; some of them I have thrust into
"the empty box, for the like purpose."
In a letter of September, 1772, he describes his garden:—
"Under a north wall, I have a good border, made up of that kind
"of rich black turf-like soil, mixed with some sand, in which I find