Page:The Harvard Classics Vol. 3.djvu/126

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
118
THE ESSAYS OF FRANCIS BACON

stately sooner than to garden finely; as if gardening were the greater perfection. I do hold it, in the royal ordering of gardens, there ought to be gardens for all the months in the year; in which severally things of beauty may be then in season. For December, and January, and the latter part of November, you must take such things as are green all winter: holly; ivy; bays; juniper; cypress-trees; yew ; pine-apple-trees;[1] fir-trees; rosemary; lavender; periwinkle, the white, the purple, and the blue; germander; flags; orange-trees; lemon-trees; and myrtles, if they be stoved;[2] and sweet marjoram, warm set. There followeth, for the latter part of January and February, the mezereon-tree, which then blossoms; crocus vernus,[3] both the yellow and the grey; primroses; anemones; the early tulippa; byacinthus orientalis; chamairis; fritellaria.[4] For March, there come violets, specially the single blue, which are the earliest; the yellow daffodil; the daisy; the almond-tree in blossom; the peach-tree in blossom; the cornelian-tree in blossom; sweet-briar. In April follow the double white violet; the wall-flower; the stock-gilliflower; the cow-slip; flower-delices, and lilies of all natures; rosemary-flowers; the tulippa; the double peony; the pale daffodil; the French honeysuckle ; the cherry-tree in blossom; the damson and plum-trees in blossom; the white thorn in leaf; the lilac-tree. In May and June come pinks of all sorts, specially the blush-pink; roses of all kinds, except the musk, which comes later; honeysuckles; strawberries; bugloss; columbine; the French marigold, flos Africanus; cherry-tree in fruit; ribes;[5] figs in fruit; rasps; vine-flowers; lavender in flowers; the sweet satyrian, with the white flower; herba muscaria;[6] lilium convallium;[7] the apple-tree in blossom. In July come gilliflowers of all varieties; musk-roses; the lime-tree in blossom; early pears and plums in fruit; jennetings,[8] codlins.[8] In August come plums of all sorts in fruit; pears; apricocks; berberries; filberds; musk-melons; monks-hoods, of all colors. In September come grapes; apples; poppies of all colors; peaches; melocotones;[9] nectarines;

  1. Pine trees. The cones were called pineapples.
  2. Kept in a hothouse.
  3. Spring crocus.
  4. A kind of lily.
  5. Currants or gooseberries.
  6. Grape-hyacinth.
  7. Lily of the valley.
  8. 8.0 8.1 Kinds of apples.
  9. A kind of peach.