there is scarcely any plant existing in the known world, that
will not, with proper care, thrive in our climate." In a visit made by Sir
W. Watson and Dr. Mitchell to Tradescant's garden in 1749, an account of
which is inserted in the _Philosophical Transactions_, vol. xlvi. p. 160.,
it appears that it had been many years totally neglected, and the house
belonging to it empty and ruined; but though the garden was quite covered
with weeds, there remained among them manifest footsteps of its founder.
They found there the _Borago latifolia sempervivens_ of Caspar Bauhine;
_Polygonatum vulgare latifolium_, C.B.; _Aristolochia clematitis recta_,
C.B.; and the _Dracontium_ of Dodoens. There were then remaining two trees
of the _Arbutus_, which from their being so long used to our winters, did
not suffer from the severe cold of 1739-40, when most of their kind were
killed in England. In the orchard there was a tree of the _Rhamnus
catharticus_, about twenty feet high, and nearly a foot in diameter. There
are at present no traces of this garden remaining.

In the Ashmolean Library is preserved (No. 1461.) a folio manuscript
(probably in the handwriting of the elder Tradescant) which purports to be
"The Tradescants' Orchard, illustrated in sixty-five coloured drawings of
fruits, exhibiting various kinds of the apple, cherry, damson, date, {354}
gooseberry, peares, peaches, plums, nectarines, grape, Hasell-nutt, quince,
strawberry, with the times of their ripening."

Old John Tradescant died in the year 1652, at which period he was probably
far advanced in years, leaving behind him a son (also of the same name) who
seems to have inherited his father's talents and enthusiasm. There is a
tradition that John Tradescant the younger entered himself on board a
privateer going against the Algerines, that he might have an opportunity of
bringing apricot-trees from that country. He is known to have taken a
voyage to Virginia, whence he returned with many new plants. The two
Tradescants were the means of introducing a variety of curious species into
this kingdom, several of which bore their name. Tradescants' _Spiderwort_
and _Aster_ are well known to this day, and Linnaeus has immortalised them
among the botanists by making a new genus under their names of the
_Spiderwort_, which had been before called _Ephemeron_.

When the elder Tradescant first settled in England, he formed a curious
collection of natural history, coins, medals, and a