38
The Presidential Address.
from the Caucasus, since it is not known in the middle of
Europe.34 To the quaint Elizabethan gardens, often alluded
to by Shakspere and Milton, and described by Bacon, or at a
later date by Addison, many new vegetables and flowering
plants had now been introduced from the New World. The
first of these to become a naturalised escape in Essex was
the Pearly Everlasting (Antennaria margaritacea), which Ray
himself noticed in a meadow at Bocking.96 Among his other
works it is noteworthy that our great Essex naturalist drew
up a special list of the plants of the county,90 and that
among them the Martagon Lily does not occur. This con-
spicuous plant has, however, been known at Sampford since
the beginning of this century ; but, though thus undoubtedly
of recent introduction, it is in danger of rapid extermination,
since the cottagers are in the habit of transplanting it into
their gardens.97 Ray tells us that the Common and Large-
leaved Lime were considerably planted in his time,98 as the
Sycamore had been during the preceding century, and no
doubt the influence of the 'Sylva' of his great contem-
porary, John Evelyn, made itself felt in Essex, as elsewhere, in
the planting of Oak, Beech, and other timber in the parks that
were as numerous as they are now—the common pasture-lands
of the old village communities converted into feudal manors.
We have not in Essex been affected by the too zealous
enthusiasm of botanists' attempts at the acclimatisation of
exotics, nor by the neighbourhood of botanic gardens ; but
since the middle of the last century the Perfoliate Honey-
suckle (Lonicera caprifolium), the Yellow Figwort (Scrophularia
vernalis), the Balm (Melissa officinalis), the Coriander, the
Tulip, the Snowdrop, the Evening Primrose (an American
species), and the Sweet Alyssum (A. maritimum), have escaped
from gardens and become more or less established in a wild
94 Ray's 'Synopsis,' ed. Dillenius (1724), p. 340, for this species, and
elsewhere for those just mentioned. DeCandolle, op. cit., pp. 656-7.
95 'Synopsis,' ed. Dillenius (1724), p. 182.
96 In Gibson's edition of Camden's 'Britannia,' 1695.
97 Gibson, 'Flora of Essex,' p. 317.
98 'Synopsis' (1724), p. 473; 'Historia Plantarum,' vol. ii., p. 1694.