146 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ February 18, 1873. 



in the Nantwieh registers from 1539 to 1.5i5, the only early 

 entries, and all eabsequent entries are lost down to the year 

 1J72. 



The date of hia birth has been derived from the Latin inscrip- 

 tion round hia portrait prefixed to his " Herball" — Englished 

 it is — " Portrait of .Tohn Gerarde of Cheshire, citizfln and 

 snrgeonof London, in the 53 year of his age, 1598." From it 

 we also learn hia native county, but the authority for Nant- 

 wieh Ifciug hia birthplace does not appear. Ormerod in his 

 "History of Cheshire" merely mentions that Gerarde was 

 born at Nantwieh in 1515, and that he was most probably a 

 collateral descendant of one of the great Cheshire families of 

 that name. 



The occupation of b.irber and surgeon were conjoined even 

 among the ancient Greeks and Romans, and continued on the 

 continent and in England throughout the Middle Ages. The 

 Barter-Chirurgeons were incorporated here in 14.30, and their 

 Hall was on the west side of Monkwell Street, in Farringdon 

 ward. The two occupations were divided by the statute passed 

 in the thirty-second year of Henry VIII. (1511), for that 

 statute forbade the barber to perform any surgical operation 

 but tooth-drawing. The surgeons thus separated had liberty 

 to dissect executed malefactors, and were required to pass a 

 slight examination as a test of their ability. It is certain that 

 Gerarde never followed the barber occupation, for, as noticed 

 in Queen Anne's grant, he was then " surgeon and herbarist 

 to the king;" and though the company of Barber- Surgeons 

 continued to exist and he was its chairman, yet its occupation 

 was gone, and it was finally extinguished by Act of Parliament 

 in the eighteenth of George II. (1745). 



Gerarde's first publication appeared in 1596, being" Catalogus 

 Arbornm, Frntieum, ac Plantarum tam Indigenarum quam 

 Exoticarum, in Horto Jobannis Gerardi, Civis et Chirurgi 

 Londinensis Xascentium. 1596." It is dedicated to his patron 

 and employer Cecil, Baron Burleigh. He states that his bo- 

 tanical friends had urged him to publish a catalogue of the 

 plants he had collected from most remote regions, and " culti- 

 vated in my little suburban garden for some years." It occu- 

 pies only eighteen small quarto pages and in double columns. 

 The plants are named in alphabetical order fram Abies to 

 Zizyphus ; they are 1039 in number, and Matthias de Lobel 

 testifies on the last page that he had often seen them all grow- 

 ing in Gerarde's garden. 



In the preface Gerarde intimates an intention to publish a 

 larger work on plants, and even alludes to coloured plates. 

 Better advice made him prefer the plain woodcuts with which 

 he illustrated his " Herbal," published in 1597. It is entitled, 

 " The Herball, or General Historie of Plantes Gathered by 

 .John Gerarde of London, Master in Chirurgerie. Imprinted 

 at London by John Norton, 1597." It is dedicated to "his 

 singular good lord and master. Sir William Cecil, Knight, and 

 Baron of Burghley, etc." How skilled he was in a knowledge 

 of plants, their history and qualities, that work testifies ; and 

 there is prefixed to it this testimonial from " George Baker, 

 one of her Majesties chiefe Chirnrgions in ordinarie, and M. of 

 the Chirurgions of the Citie of London." — " I do not think for 

 the knowledge of plants that he (Gerarde) is inferiour to any, 

 for I did once see him tried with one of the best strangers 

 that ever came into England, and was accounted in Paris the 

 onely man, being recommended unto me by that famous man 

 Master Amb. Parens, and he being here was desirous to goe 

 abroad with some of our herbarists, for the which I was the 

 mtane to bring them together, and one whole day we spent 

 therein, searching the rarest simples ; but when it came to the 

 triall my Frenchman did not know one to his foure." 



There are many other testimonials both in prose and verse, 

 but we can only quote an extract from one written by Thomas 

 Xhorney, Master in Chirurgerie. 



■' Herein fas in a glassel we see 



How thou thy mind bath bent. 

 Thy bodye toyid. thy time bestowed, 



And many a pounde hath spent ; 

 In sleeplesse nights, in reatlosse daie?, 



In placf s far and neere. 

 In searching this, in trying that. 



In countries here and there.*' 



Whither he travelled wo have no specific information, but he 

 intimates he had seen the native Firs growing near Narva, 

 near the Gulf of Finland. 



Gerarde founded his " Herbal " on Dodoen's " Stirpium 

 Historia? Pemptades," published in 1583. This was iu Latin, 

 and being translated by Dr. Priest, Gerarde obtained the 

 translation and inooj-porated with it the plants described by 



Garcias, Monardes, Creaalpinus, Camerariscus, Dalechamp, 

 Thalius, Tabern.'emontauus, and A. Costa, in addition to the 

 plants brought home by Raleigh and Cavendish, and which 

 were cultivated and nursed in Gerarde's own gardens, and 

 those of Lord Burleigh and others. 



The system, if system it deserves to be called, is to divide 

 all known plants into three groups. — 1, Grasses, Corn, Rushes, 

 and bulbous-rooted plants ; 2, Herbs used for diet, physic, or 

 forornament or pleasure; 3, Trees, shrubs, fruit-bearing plants, 

 resins, Roses, Mushrooms, &z. The woodcuts had been em- 

 ployed previously to illustrate Tabernfemontanus's " Herbal." 



No further example of the absurdity of the three divisions 

 need be quoted than the Potato. It is iu the second division, 

 and consequently is associated with the Turnip, Cucnmber, 

 Pompion, Crane's-bill, &c. 



I have named the Potato because a sprig of its stem 

 bearing leaves, flower, and berry are in Gerarde's hand, as re- 

 presented in our wood engraving, copied from the frontispiece 

 of .iohnson's edition of the " Herball." I believe it was 

 placed there because Gerarde was its first cultivator in England. 

 In that volume, after particularising the Sweet Potato, which 

 he calls " Sisarum Peruvianum, sive Batata Hispanarum, 

 Potatus or Potatoes," he proceeds to the consideration of the 

 common Potato, under the title of " Potatoes of Virginia. 

 Battafa Virginiana sive Virginianorum et Pappus." The 

 woodcut and the description demonstrate that the plant ho 

 had before him was our common Potato, and he proceeds 

 to observe that " It groweth naturally in America, where it 

 was discovered, as reporteth C. Clnsius, since which time I 

 have received I'oots hereof from Virginia, otherwise called 

 Norembega, which grow and prosper in my garden as in their 

 own native country." After stating the time of its blooming, 

 etc., Gerarde adds, " The Indians call it papns (meaning the 

 roots), by which name the common Potatoes (Sweet) are known 

 to them. We have the name proper unto it mentioned in the 

 title, because it hath not only the shape and proportion of 

 Potatoes, but also the pleasant taste and virtues of the same ; 

 so we may call it in English Potatoes of America or Virginia. 

 Being likewise a food, as also a meat for pleasure, either roasted 

 in the embers or boiled, and eaten with oil, vinegar, and pepper; 

 or dressed any other way by the hand of some cunning in 

 cookery." 



I hoped to find some indications of Gerarde's family in the 

 registers preserved at Somerset House, but no will or letters of 

 administration are there. So of whether he was married or 

 what were the results of his industry we have no information. 

 Nor could I obtain auy information from the registers of 

 St. Andrew's, as those of baptisms in the sixteenth century are 

 lost.— G. 



GILBERT'S SEA-KALE AND EHUBARB TUB. 



I THINK Mr. Wright is a trifle too enthusiastic in his notice 

 of these tubs for Sea-kale and PJiubarb forcing. Firstly, they 

 are no new invention, but one that has been resorted to as a 

 makeshift for many years. I have used them for twelve years 

 to make up with when short of the usual pots, and several 

 friends of mine have used them for thirty or more years, and 

 during that time have often found them useful, but will agree 

 with me in saying they have not found them so good in any 

 way, nor so cheap in the end, as the usual Sea-kale pot. — 

 T. Keetlet. 



I SEE in the Journal an engraving of a Sea-kale and Rhubarb 

 forcing box used by Mr. Gilbert, which I consider a superior 

 article to the old Sea-kale and Rhubarb pots. Haviiig used 

 them in Scotland some years ago, the idea is not new to me. 

 I can say that they answer the purpose equally as well as the 

 pots. They are cheaper and easier to manage iu every way, 

 and not so liable to be broken as the pots. Now that the idea 

 is published I have no doubt but they will become more gene- 

 rally used, as they deserve to be. — Jas. F.\irweaiher. 



PROTECTING PEAS FROM SPARROWS. 

 The following is the mode I protect my Peas : Just as they 

 appear above ground my gardener has a piece of wirework 

 netting, about a foot in width, at a cost of about SJi/. per yard, 

 whicli is cut to the length of the row, and is placed on them 

 and left until they are high enough out of the ground, say 

 about 3 inches, when the birds will not touch them, and then 

 they arc put on later sorts. When done with they fold into 



