174 HISTORY OF ESSEX BOTANY. 



Of Thomas Johnson there is a tolerably full account in t he 

 Flora of Middlesex (pp, 370-2) and a biography, by the present 

 writer, in the Dictionary of National Biography (vol. xxx., p. 47). 

 He was born at Selby, Yorkshire, lived at one time in Lincoln- 

 shire, and practised as an apothecary on Snow Hill. In 1595 

 he seems to have published Cornucopia or divers secrets (London, 

 pp. 46) ; and in 1629, Iter Plantaruni Investigationis ergo snsceptum . . 

 in Agrum Cantianwn, the first account of a botanical excursion 

 printed in England, with Ericetum Hamstedianum, an account of a 

 herborization on Hampstead Heath, as an appendix. In 1630 

 he issued A neiv Booke of netv Conceits .... (London, pp. 

 24)--* ; in 16^2, Ennmeratio Plantarnm in Ericeto Hampstediano (p. 7), 

 the earliest English Florula ; and in 1633, as the result, mirahile 

 dictu, of only a year's work,--' his " very much enlarged and 

 amended " edition of Gerard. This contained some 800 

 additional plants and 700 new figures, making in all, according 

 to Pulteney, 2850 descriptions and 2717 figures ; whilst the much 

 needed corrections of Gerard's blunders are at least as valuable 

 as the additions. The editor's additions are generally, but 

 unfortunately not always, marked with \l ; and yet many 

 modern writers quote all alike as " Gerarde." The 

 Herhall was reprinted, without further alteration, in 1636. 

 Meanwhile in 1634 Johnson published Mercurius Botanicus 

 (London, pp. 78), a description of a twelve days' tour 

 in the south-west of England, witli an appendix De Thermis 

 Bathonicis. This was followed, in 1641, by Mercurii Botanici Pars 

 altera (London, pp. 37) describing a tour in Wales."* As a 

 royalist, Johnson, in 1642, was made Bachelor of Physic by the 

 University of Oxford and became M.D. in the following year, 

 in which he published a translation of the medical works of 

 Ambroise Pare. Kt the siege of Basing House, Johnson became 

 lieutenant-colonel under Sir Marmaduke Rawdon, fired the 

 Grange near by, killing three hundred of Waller's men, wounding 

 five hundred more, and capturing stores ; but was shot in the 

 shoulder on September 14th, 1644, during a sally, and died a 

 fortnight later. " being then no less eminent in the garrison lor 

 his valour and conduct as a soldier, than famous through the 

 kingdom for his excellency as a herbalist and physician."^' 



24 Britisli Museum press mark 1036. b. 33. Reprinted by Halliwell in his Literature 

 of the 16th and 17th centuries, 1851. These two opuscula are not mentioned in the Dictionary 

 of National toaraphy. 



25 Vide Appendix to the Herball : Preface, p. 1591. 



26 Having become very scarce, the smaller botanical works of Johnson were reprinted 

 in 1847 by T. S. Ralph, under the title oi Opuscula omnia botanica Thoma- Johnscni ; but the 

 reprint is now scarce. 



27 Antony a Wood. 



