EAELY BlilTISn BOTAXTSTS AND TIIEIE GARDENS 3G5 



REVIEWS. 

 Early British Botanists and their Gardens: based oil unpiihlished 

 Writings of Goodi/er, Tradescant, and others hy K. T. 

 GuNTHER, M.A., F.L.S., Librarian and Bescarch Felloio of 

 Magdalen College \_Oxford]. With 9 plates and 21 other 

 iUustratioiis. Oxford ; at the University Press. Demv 8vo, 

 cloth; pp. viii, 417. Price Two Gruineas. 



At the meeting of the Linnean Society on March 3, 1921, the 

 author of this attractively-produced volume exhibited and described 

 certain manuscripts of John Goodyer which, in his caj^acity as 

 Librarian of ]\Iagdalen College, he had discovered in its Library; a 

 summary of these discoveries, so far as they had then extended, was 

 printed in this Journal for 1921 (p. 119). It was evident that 

 Mr. Gunther had come upon a mine, hitherto almost unworked, of 

 information relating to an early period of British botany ; his subse- 

 quent proposal to publish a volume devoted to the MSS. aroused the 

 highest anticipations among those interested in that hlstor3^ To say 

 that these anticipations have been more than fully realised by the 

 volume before us conveys but a feeble idea of its valu>3 and interest ; 

 our only regret is that it is impossible to do anything like justi(;e to 

 its merits in the limited space which this Journal ali'ords. The 

 rapiditj' with which the book has been produced is among the most 

 remarkable features connected with it ; in little more than a j^ear 

 from its announcement the volume was issued from the press. jN^or 

 has this rapiditj^ of production been attended with incompleteness ; 

 we have seldom met with a work which affords such evidence of care 

 or such intimate knowledge ; in every detail moreover, althoup-h the 

 author claims no special acquaintance with botanj', the slips in that 

 direction which sometimes disfigure works otherwise accurate are, 

 save for one or two insignificant instances, entire h" absent. 



The volume is based on the manuscripts bequeathed to Maodalen 

 College, with his botanical library, by John Goodj^er in 1664, and 

 more than half the volume is devoted to Goodyer himself — his life, 

 his descriptions of plants, and his botanical library. In addition to 

 his other qualifications, Mr. Gunther is possessed of an admirable 

 literary stjde, and his account of Goodyer's life is additionally interest- 

 ing from the care with which he has indicated his author's relation 

 to the history of the period. 



Goodyer, who was born in 1592, "contemplated the scientific 

 study of botany in 1616" ; during the winter of this year he added 

 important works to his librar}'' in each of which he noted the price 

 and date of purchase, an indication of the care observable throughout 

 his work. At this time he had already devoted himself to gardens 

 and the medicinal stud}^ of herbs; by his twentj'-ninth 3'ear (1621) 

 his botanical enthusiasm had reached its height — '* more descriptions 

 of new or rare plants were turned out in July, August, and September 

 of that year than in all the rest of his life." From this period 

 Mr. Gunther is able by his diary and MSS. to trace Goodyer's career 

 almost year by year until his death in 1664 ; during the latter part 

 of his life " he was evidently applying his knowledge of simples to 

 the ofood of his ailinor neiijhbours." 



