Stranica 366 [366]
OCR
THE POTOMAC AND RAPPAHANNOCK Virginia, Mrs. [Thomas Jones, ‘‘Virginia cones, acorns and seeds would be most acceptable.’”’ Robert Beverley, the historian, writing about 1700, tells how easily and abundantly both fruits and flowers were grown in Virginia. He writes, con amore, of the tulip, “the perfection of flavor’ and “all sorts of herbs,’’ and "the charming colors of the humming birds revelling among the blossoms,’ etc. ‘his Virginia historian of the long ago shows the same knowledge and love of flowers that his many-times grandson, Captain James Bradshaw Beverley, does in the following sketch of the old garden at Avenel—a garden designed more than a hundred years ago by James Bradshaw Beverley and his wife, Jane Peter of Georgetown, the grandparents of Captain Beverley. The garden of Avenel was formed by two flower-knots, which are shown in the diagram. To quote from Captain Beverley, "the flower-knots which were at Avenel were copied by my grandparents, if | remember aright, the one on the right from ‘Tudor Place’ and that on the left from ‘Blandfeld.’’’ In drawing them, I have not attempted mathematical precision, as no instruments were available; to have done so would have been difficult. And no drawing could convey to you the beauty, the wooing welcome, the dolce far niente of it all. Nothing but old-timey flowers! None of our grand new roses, not one. Nothing but old-timey flowers. And it has often struck me that our new productions, while each by itself, posing for its portrait, as it were, is indeed a prince of beauty, do not add much to the looks of a crowd. Have you ever seen, at a cemetery, a floral tribute composed only of wild flowers, which had been selected with taste and arranged with a sense of harmony? The florist’s best eftort meets its peer. No drawing, I said—of course not—not even Paul deLongpre’s brush could have done those flower-knots justice. And vet "the Sunburst” and “Mrs. Charles Russell’? were not there. Only the old Damask, the Hundred-Leaf, the Hermosa and the Daily, the Harrisonian, the Champigny and Grevel. Then came the Giant Lae
