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in its relation not only to botany, but also to the early development 
of natural history museums and of botanic gardens. 
The year of the elder Tradescant’s birth is not positively known. 
From the fact that his will was proved in 1638 (May 2), it is 
believed that he died in 1637, and certainly not later than the first 
half of 1638. He was a traveller, an extensive collector of all 
manner of natural history objects, and a gardener. In the Pari- 
disus Terrestris (ed. 1629, p. 152), Parkinson describes him as 
“that painfull industrious searcher and louer of all nature’s 
varieties.” 
In 1625 he wrote to Edward Nicholas, in Virginia, that it was 
the pleasure of the Duke of Buckingham (George Villiers), in 
whose service he then was, for him “to deal with all merchants 
from all places, but especially from Virginia, Bermudas, New- 
foundland, Guinea, Binney, the Amazon, and the East Indies, for 
all manner of rare beasts, fowls and birds, shells and stones.” 
Thus was the opportunity given for enlarging his at that time 
wonderful collection of natural history objects. 
The man’s local reputation, and a fine sense of humor in his 
neighbors, are reflected in the name “ Tradescant’s Ark,’ which 
they applied to his dwelling, where the collections were housed. 
The building was torn down in 1881, 
On the duke’s death, Tradescant became gardener to the King 
and Queen, Charles I and Henrietta Maria, “the rose and lily 
queen,” and this event is believed to have offered the opportunity 
for the beginning of his physic garden and the further develop- 
ment of the museum connected with it at South Lambeth. The 
garden was located nearly opposite “ Spring Lane,’ on the east 
side of the South Lambeth road between Stockwell and Vauxhall. 
Lysons (Environs of London, 1:330) credits this physic 
garden as “one of the first established in this kingdom.” Pultney 
(Sketches of the Progress of Botany, 1:177) states that Trades- 
cant was the first person in England to make “any considerable 
collection of the subjects of natural history.” In 1749 the site of 
Tradescant’s garden was visited by Sir William Watson, who gives 
an account of his visit in the Philosophical Transactions of the 
Royal Society (46: 160),and there states that Tradescant’s garden 
is, except that of Mr. John Gerard, the author of the ‘ Herbal,’ 
