HISTORY OF BOfANY. 43 



1G07. He was educated as a surgeon, and practised in 

 London, but is best known as a botanist. He superintended 

 the management of Lord Burleigh's garden for twenty years, 

 and had also a large physic garden* of his own, which he 

 frequently alludes to in his ' Herbal,' and of which he 

 published a catalogue. He became Master of the Apothe- 

 caries' Company. Gerard's 'Herbal' or 'General Historic 

 of Plants' was published in 1597; it is a folio volume of 

 nearly 1400 pages, exclusive of introductory matter and 

 indexes. It is founded on the work of Dodoens, of which 

 indeed to a considerable extent it is a verbatim translation. 

 Gra}^ in his ' British Plants'! writes as follows: — "Gerarde, 

 although the Master of the Chirurgeons' Company, was not 

 sufficiently versed in Latin to make this translation himself, 

 and thereof altered a manuscript translation of one Dr. 

 Priest, which the latter had intended to publish, but died 

 before he had accomplished his purpose ; and his papers 

 falling into the hands of Gerarde, they were transposed 

 from Dodonseus's arrangement of his subject into that of 

 Lobell, and published by Gerarde without an acknowledg- 

 ment of Dr. Priest's labour in the translation ; indeed he 

 speaks in his preface of Dr. Priest's translation having 

 perished, although both Lobell and Johnson af&rm that he 

 used it himself with no other alteration than the above 

 mentioned change of order in disposing the chapters, and 

 some additions. * * * Lobell was extremely angry at 

 Gerarde having adopted his method, at which we may be 

 surprised, since it undoubtedly may be considered at this 

 time of day as an acknowledgment of his superiority over 

 the order, if order it can be called, of Dodon^eus ; perhaps 



'■' Gerard's was tlie first English physic garden. 



f ' A Natural Ai-rangement of British Plants,' by Samuel Frederick 

 Graj'', lecturer on Botany, the Materia Medica, and Pharmaceutic 

 Chemistry. Loudon, 1821. 



