I visited Monticello for the first time. What a shame! The house was a tad smaller than I expected. No plants were labeled, and I have serious doubts if Jefferson grew them.
Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826) was obsessive record keeper and a multifaceted person. Plants are not labeled, except the seeds in the souvenir shop. The years were all askew. They asked how many knew he was an inventor, My son, I and a few others raised their hands. Then we were told he wasn't an inventor, he had only one patent. He wrote the 'Patent Act of 1790'. Congress rejected it. The Patent Act of 1793 passed. It was a royal fiasco. Early in the Eighteenth century *(frequently backdated to 1790) *a version of the Jefferson Act was passed and lasted the rest of the millennium. (*Leonardo da Vinci had no patents.)* The only plant I could recognize, altho not a rock garden plant, was Rhododendron maximum, native to the *West* coast and cataloged by Jefferson.. The seeds sold were as far as I knew were 20th century and 19th century "Heirloom". The collecting of west coast and other plants was the root of 'Manifest Destiny', altho the term was not coined until 1845. The introductory lecture also downplayed his treatment of slaves. Jefferson believed in 'pursuit of happines' and 'pursuit of a career'. He wanted his men to be carpenters, furniture makers, etc. One was a good cook, so he went to culinary school in Paris for two years. To be politically correct, they ignored narcotic root beer and hard cider, both being native to Virginia.. Larry Wallace Cincinnati North America Central
_______________________________________________ Alpine-l mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/alpine-l
