257 



JOSEPH ANDEEWS AND HIS HERBARIUM. 



I. Introdlx'tokt. 



Br G. S. BouLGEH, F.L.S., axd James Britten, F.L.S. 



A COLLECTION of British plants in the Botanical Department of 

 the British Museum which was originally known as the Hemsted 

 herbarium proved, on examination, to be in the main that formed at 

 Sudbury by the apothecary Joseph Andrews (a friend of Dale) 

 between the years 1710 and 1757, merely re-arranged with Linnean 

 names added and the original labelling retained. 



But little is known as to Andrews. He is first mentioned in 

 contemporary literature in the Dillenian Synopsis (1724); and al- 

 though plants received from him were preserved in Dale's herbarium, 

 the reference (Journ. Bot. 1883, 19G) of one of Dale's records to 

 some date earlier than 1(595 applies probably to James Newton, 

 not to Andrews : Andrews's own specimen of the plant in question 

 (Triffonella piirpioYisce/is liSiin.) is labelled "Between Sudbmy and 

 Lavenham, May 21, 1727." 



In Henry Field's Memoirs of tlie Botanic Garden at Chelsea 

 (ed. Semple (1878), p. 22) it is stated under the date 1707 that " In 

 consequence of Mr. Doody's death, Messrs. Wyehe, Andrews, and 

 Petiver were appointed to inspect the Garden." The earliest dated 

 specimens in Andrews's herbarium are those of 1711 ; these in- 

 clude some from Peckham Fields, Putney Heath, and Islington, 

 together with others from near Cambridge, Newmarket, Maldon, 

 and Bulmur ; this last locality in North Essex being very near 

 Sudbury. Putney Heath, it may be remembered, was one of the 

 places regularly visited in the " herborizings " of the Apothecaries 

 Society. 



In Sloane MS. 3340 (f. 255) is a copy by Petiver of his 

 letter of June 28, 1716, to Dr. John Thorpe, of Rochester, which 

 contains an account of a botanical excursion with James Sherard 

 during the previous week into Norfolk and Suffolk ; in the course of 

 this he writes : " At Sudbury we met with Mr. Andrews an Apothe- 

 cary, a very obliging and curious Botanist, who carried us to y« 

 Alsine Rnt;efol. & tenuifolia \^V€ro7iica triphyllos'] ye Medica cornuta 

 seu F(Bnuni Burgundianum SjSIedicago falcata'] and Frog Orchis 

 ^Habenaria viridis] then in flower : he also obliged us with several 

 dry specimens, amongst y'" a new Plantago aq. [Alisma ramiiicu- 

 loides'] with very long grassy leaves W^ I think I have seen in y« 

 canals in Holland. 



Andrews mentions several species as having been shown or given 

 to him by " Mr. John Field, Apothecary at the Bell in Newgate 

 Sti-eet." The collection contains specimens from Halstead, Essex, 

 dated 1715, and from Tilbury in 171G, and this latter year is the 

 first in which there is a mention of plants received from Dale. 

 There are, however, but few specimens dated before 1721, when the 

 earliest mention of Sudbury itself occurs. In that year and in 1722 

 Andrews visited Cambridge : in 1722 he and Dale were at Mersea 

 Journal of Botani. — Vol. 5G. [Septemher. 1918.] s 



