88 JllSTORY OF BOTANY. 



first part of his 'Herbal' was published in 1551, and the 

 complete work, which he dedicated to the Queen, in 1568. 

 The scientific acquirements of Turner were extensive and 

 various, and his imblications numerous. Turner's is 

 generally called the first English Herbal, but mention is 

 made of a small one written previously by Anthony Ascham, 

 vicar of Burniston, in Yorkshire. This, however, must have 

 been a work of but little consequence, for it is generally 

 overlooked, and I have not met with even a description of it. 

 After Turner the study of Botany spread rapidly with us.* 



Jacques Dalechamp, or Dalechamps, the authority for 

 several of the names of our British Flora, must be 

 mentioned here. He was a French physician and botanist, 

 and was born at Caen in 1513. He made a collection of 

 plants in the neighbourhood of Lyons, and published a 

 ' General History of Plants,' giving descriptions of over a 

 thousand. Dalechamp also published an edition of Pliny. 

 He died at Lyons about 1588. 



Adam Lonicer (in Latin Lonicerus) was another botanical 

 writer of this time. He lived at Frankfort, and published 

 there a work on " Natural Flistory," which is a similar 

 Herbal to otlit^rs of the same period. In respect to type 

 and illustrations it is rather uncouth ; it was published at 



■'' A writer m ' The Garden ' (1874) notices the plants that are 

 incidentally mentioned by Shakespeare, who wrote a little after 

 Turner's time, being born 1564 : — " Of our English wild flowers 

 Shakespeare mentions about 15, alluding to some only once or twice. 

 Of exotic flowers, or such as were cultivated in the scanty gardens of 

 his period, more than 300 years ago, lie mentions nine or ten. Of 

 trees and shrubs, exotics included, there are notices of about 25. Of 

 fruits, whether ripened in England or imported from foreign countries, 

 I find the names — sometimes often recurrent — of about 30. Vegetables 

 are spoken of in about equal proportion. Products of the nature of 

 spices and medicines are mentioned to the extent of about a score ; and 

 the same is about the number of what are contemptuously called 

 ' weeds,' — or about 150 in all." 



