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Case seven
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| Kalendarium Hortense, in John Evelyn,
Sylva, or a discourse of forest-trees, and the propagation of timber
in His Majesties dominions. London: Printed for John Martyn, printer
to the Royal Society, 1679. DeBeer Ec/1679/E |
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Evelyn's Silva
The de Beer collection contains three editions of John Evelyn's (1620-1705) Silva (or Sylva), the first publication officially sponsored by the Royal Society. This book promoted the planting of trees to avert the timber crisis facing the British navy. The first (1664) edition of Sylva was bound with his Kalendarium Hortense, a garden calendar which instructed readers what operations should be completed in the kitchen garden, orchard and flower garden in each month. Garden calendars have been a popular genre since the 16th century, due to the importance of performing many gardening activities at a set time each year.
The fourth (1706) edition of Silva contains Evelyn's last work on kitchen gardening. Written in 1699, Acetaria is a dissertation on the art of growing salad vegetables and of composing perfect salads. Many different types of plants were used in these salads along with pickled flowers and roots.