beheld the Indian ginger growing green in his garden, and his delight in
grafting the myrtle on the musk vine, that the experiment might show us
the myrtle wine of the ancients. But transplanters, like other
inventors, are sometimes baffled in their delightful enterprises; and
we are told of Peiresc's deep regret when he found that the Indian
cocoa-nut would only bud, and then perish in the cold air of France,
while the leaves of the Egyptian papyrus refused to yield him their
vegetable paper. But it was his garden which propagated the exotic
fruits and flowers, which he transplanted into the French king's, and
into Cardinal Barberini's, and the curious in Europe; and these
occasioned a work on the manuring of flowers by Ferrarius, a botanical
Jesuit, who there described these novelties to Europe.

Had Evelyn only composed the great work of his "Sylva, or a Discourse of
Forest Trees," his name would have excited the gratitude of posterity.
The voice of the patriot exults in the dedication to Charles II.
prefixed to one of the later editions. "I need not acquaint your
majesty, how many millions of timber-trees, besides infinite others,
have been propagated and planted throughout your vast dominions, at the
instigation and by the sole direction of this work, because your majesty
has been pleased to own it publicly for my encouragement." And surely
while Britain retains her awful situation among the nations of Europe,
the "Sylva" of Evelyn will endure with her triumphant oaks. It was a
retired philosopher who aroused the genius of the nation, and who,
casting a prophetic eye towards the age in which we live, contributed to
secure our sovereignty of the seas. The present navy of Great Britain
has been constructed with the oaks which the genius of Evelyn planted!

Animated by a zeal truly patriotic, De Serres in France, 1599, composed
a work on the art of raising silk-worms, and dedicated it to the
municipal body of Paris, to excite the inhabitants to cultivate
mulberry-trees. The work at first produced a strong sensation, and many
planted mulberry-trees in the vicinity of Paris; but as they were not
yet used to raise and manage the silk-worm, they reaped nothing but
their trouble for their pains. They tore up the mulberry-trees they had
planted, and, in spite of De Serres, asserted that the northern climate
was not adapted for the rearing of that tender insect. The great Sully,
from his hatred of all objects of luxury, cou