A decade later - Fundação Luso-Americana

68
cuLTure
‘ As Jefferson […] and John Adams […] found out
on a visit to several of London’s most famous gardens
in the late 18 th century, ironically, “the english garden is,
in fact, American.
’
of all.” 5 In this case, it was owing to a
general lack of initiative that the black
locust, which is today considered an invasive
species (prohibited by Decree-Law
565/99), did not spread like a plague
throughout Portugal, but remained confined
– as did the tulip trees and catalpas
– to public and private parks, gardens, and
avenues as ornamental trees.
The existence of these trees in Portugal
is linked to the botanical bent of the upper
crust English who lived in Portugal at the
time. The members of the privileged set
were determined to design gardens containing
species that had been discovered
under the patronage of the British aristocracy.
Indeed, the monied classes, along
with British botanists, and even the British
monarchy had been long-time investors
and sponsors of countless botanical expeditions,
which included the journeys of
discovery carried out by two of the world’s
most tireless plant-hunters: the American
John Bartram, who brought the white
magnolia to Europe, and Mark Catesby,
British naturalist, illustrator and author of
the Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the
Bahama Islands (1731-1743), the first book
to contain colored plates of North
American flora and fauna, and the man
who “discovered” the catalpa while roaming
the wilds of Georgia and Alabama.
So, it is no surprise that one of the regular
contributors to the Journal of Practical
Horticulture, with a number of essays on the
trees of America, was the Englishman
William C. Tait, whose garden in Porto
was nothing short of a botany collection,
and today is home to one of the oldest
tulip trees in Portugal – 250 years old to
be precise. The Monserrate Park in Sintra,
formerly owned by Sir Francis Cook
(1817-1901), can also boast a giant tulip
tree, magnolias, and species from a number
of other continents. This imposing
park was designed with the help of landscape
painter William Stockdale, botanist
William Nevill, and James Burt, the master
gardener of Kew Gardens.
It is also strikes no one as odd that there
are American species in Pena National Park
in Sintra, where a majestic tulip tree holds
court along with a sequoia, and a giant
American arbor vitae. The Park’s main men-
tors, Fernando II, the royal consort and his
second wife, the Countess of Elda, both
cultivated an interest in botany to the extent
that they symbolically planted a eucalyptus
in Pena Park on the day of their wedding
– June 10, 1869. And they had the good
fortune of having as a friend the American
forestry specialist John Slade, the brotherin-law
of the monarch’s young wife.
As Jefferson, at the time America’s minister
to France, and John Adams, US minister
to the Court of St. James found out
on a visit to several of London’s most
famous gardens in the late 18th century,
ironically, “the English garden is, in fact,
American.” 6 Many of the shrubs and trees
had been sent from North America as
seeds by John Bartram, in what came to
be known as “Bartram’s boxes,” which
bore scores of American specimens to
both the European mainland and England.
In 1765 King George III granted the
American-born botanist an annual pension
of £50, to serve as “the King’s Botanist in
North America,” a post he would hold
until his death in 1777.
From his home in Philadelphia, Bartram
corresponded with Mark Catesby as he
trekked through America’s colonial heartland
discovering trees that no-one but the native
Americans had ever laid eyes on, like the
catalpa, which in Creek means “winged
head,” owing to the shape of its blossoms.
Catesby was known as a man of few words,
which must have been a great relief to the
Native Americans whose agricultural and
botanical acumen he was wise enough to
tap. However, several commentators have
noted that Catesby also expresses discouragement
in his writings. The reason is that the
naturalist had come to realize that the
European settlers had grown indifferent to
America’s natural wonders, which even
before the Catesby death in 1749, they had
relentlessly begun to destroy.
1. PAKENHAM, Thomas, “Le Tour du Monde en 80 Arbres”,
Éditions du Chêne, 2002, pg. 100.
2. “Shade-Trees in Cities”, Rural Essays, DOWNING, A. J.,
Geo. A. Leavitt, New York, 1869, pgs. 316-318 [Google
Livros].
3. “Impressões da Exposição Agrícola Portuense”, LAPA,
J. L. Ferreira, Archivo Rural, 1860, vol. 3, pg. 373 [Google
Livros].
4. “As Catalpas”, KNOTT, Edmond, Jornal de Horticultura
Prática, vol. X, 1879, pgs. 66, 67 and 68. Another interesting
article is: “A Catalpa Bignonioides como Árvore
Económica”, TAIT, William C., Jornal de Horticultura Prática,
vol. XVIII, 1887, pg. 153. [online: FUNDO ANTIGO,
Faculdade de Ciências Universidade do Porto].
5. “Robinia Pseudo-Acacia,” FREITAS, M. de, Jornal de
Horticultura Prática, vol. XVII, 1886, pgs. 198-200 [online:
FUNDO ANTIGO, Faculdade de Ciências Universidade
do Porto].
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011