Jean de la Quintinie (1626-1688, French)
The Compleat Gard'ner: or Directions for Cultivating and Right Ordering of Fruit-Gardens and Kitchen Gardens;
With Divers Reflections on Several Parts of Husbandry ... / Made English by John Evelyn Esquire
London: for Matthew Gillyflower, 1693
Gift of Marjorie Martin Townsend, Class of 1919
Jean de La Quintinie was Director of the fruit and vegetable gardens of the royal palaces under Louis XIV. His book, published posthumously, instructed gentlemen in the management of their gardens, and particularly in the various techniques he had developed or refined to extend the natural seasons and ranges of various plants. He explained the use of green houses, temporary frames for cold-sensitive plants, culture in cold frames and under glass bells, and especially the pruning and training of both free standing and espaliered fruit trees. His translator, John Evelyn, was an English writer and gardener, whose works includes Sylva, or a Discourse of Forest Trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions (1664), in which he urged the planting of trees to provide wood for the building of England’s navy.
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