The deciduous cypress was one of the first American trees introduced into, England; it is described by John Parkinson in his Herbal of 1640.
Parkinson tells us that in his time (early in the 17th century) the naked oat was sown in sundry places, but "nothing so frequent" as the common sort.
The larch, though mentioned by Parkinson in 1629 as "nursed up" by a few "lovers of variety " as a rare exotic, does not seem to have been much grown in England till early in the 18th century.
Gerard, who succeeded Turner, and after him Parkinson, calls it gilloflower, and thus it travelled from its original orthography until it was called July-flower by those who knew not whence it was derived."
Previous to this (in 1629) Parkinson, the friend and associate of Johnson, had published his Paradisus, in which (p. 517) he gives an indifferent figure of the potato under the name of Papas seu Battatas Virginianorum, and adds details as to the method of cooking the tubers which seem to indicate that they were still luxuries.
