78 
Tradescant’s museum was one of those heterogeneous collec- 
tions of “ rarities,” reflecting the encyclopedic interests of scientific 
men of that period. This old type of naturalist is now rarely met 
with, being supplanted by the modern specialist, who is charac- 
terized rather by the depth than by the breadth of his interests 
and knowledge. 
The table of contents, called “A view of the whole,” includes 
such unrelated objects as birds with their eggs, four-footed beasts, 
divers sorts of strange fishes, shell-creatures, insects, mae’ 
“petrified things’? and “choice stones,” outlandish fruits from 
both the Indies, mechanicks, carvings, turnings, and paintings, 
“other variety of rarities,” warlike intsruments, garments, “ uten- 
sils and householdstuffe,” numismata, and medalls—a veritable 
museum of science and art; concluding with the “ Hortus Trades- 
cantianus, an enumeration of his Plants, Shrubs, and Trees both 
m English and Latine” ; and concluding (pp. 179-183) with “A 
Catalogue of his Benefactors.” The benefactors included King 
Charles and Queen Mary, George, Duke of Buckingham, William 
Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, the Earl of Salisbury, and other 
royal and prominent persons. 
Among the objects cataloged (p. 43) are, “A piece of the 
Stone of Sarringe-Castle where Hellen of Greece was born; A 
piece of the Stone of the Oracle of Apollo; A piece of the Stone 
of Diana's Tomb; An Orange gathered from the Tree that grew 
over Zebulon’s Tombe.” These objects indicate, not alone the 
non-scientific character of the early museums, but the contempo- 
rary credulity, and un-scientific habits of thought. This notion of 
the nature and purpose of a museum, as a cabinet of oddities, of 
the curious, the unusual, and the amazing or amusing, rather than 
of the fundamentally instructive, has had great vitality and inertia. 
During the preparation of this article, the writer was interviewed 
by a reporter of one of the largest and most widely known daily 
papers of New York. The reporter appeared genuinely surprised 
and even somewhat disappointed to learn, in response to his query, 
that the purpose of a Botanic Garden is not primarily to exhibit 
botanical curiosities, “ the wonders of plant life. 
On page 41 of the volume under review, we learn that the 
author's collection contained, “A Book of Mr. Tradescant’s 

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