Note 26 — English Authors on Gardening.
Reading edition
Dr. Pulteney gives a list of several manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, the writers of which are unknown, and the dates not precisely determined, but supposed to have been written, if not prior to the invention of printing, at least before the introduction of that art into England. I select the two following.—
No. 2543. De Arboribus, Aromatis, et Floribus.
No. 2562. Glossarium Latino-anglicum Arborum, Fructuum, Frugam, &c.
And he states the following from Bib. S. Petri Cant:—
No. 1695. Notabilia de Vegetabilibus, et Plantis.
Dr. Pulteney observes, that the above list might have been considerably extended, but that it would have unnecessarily swelled the article he was then writing.
The Nouv. Dict. Hist. mentions a personage whose attachment to his garden, and one of whose motives for cultivating that garden, does not deserve a notice:—"Attale III. Roi de Pergame, fils de Stratonice, soùlla la thrône en répandant le sang de ses amis et de sea parens. Il abandonna ensuite le soìn de ses affaires pour s'occuper entirement de son jardin. Il y cultivoit des poisons, tels que l'aconit et la ciguë, qu'il envoyoit quelque fois en présent a ses amis. Il mourut 133 ans avant Jesus Christ."