appendix. 217 



John Gerard. 



These additional notes about Gerard are chiefly taken 

 from an interesting article in the ' Journal of Horticulture,' 

 February 18th, 1875. 



The date of Gerard's birth cannot be ascertained with 

 certainty. There is no entry of his baptism in the Nantwich 

 registers from 1539 to 1545, the only early entries, and all 

 subsequent ones, are lost down to the year 1572. It has, 

 therefore, been derived from the Latin inscription round 

 his portrait prefixed to his ' Herb all,' which in English is — 

 " Portrait of John Gerard, of Cheshire, citizen and surgeon 

 of London, in the 53 year of his age, 1598." He was born 

 at Nantwich, and went to school in the same neighbourhood, 

 as appears from his ' Herbal.' He says of Cardamine pra- 

 tensis that it is " called at that Namptwich in Cheshire 

 ivhere I had my beginning, Ladie smockes," and of Kubus 

 id£eus, "I haue found it among the bushes of a cawsey 

 neere vnto a village called Wisterson, ivhere I zvent to 

 schoole, two miles from the Nantwitch in Cheshire." 



Gerard's first publication was his ' Catalogue of Trees, 

 Shrubs, and Plants, both Indigenous and Exotic, growing 

 in the garden of John Gerard, citizen and surgeon of London.' 

 It is dedicated to Lord Burleigh, and occupies eighteen 

 small quarto pages in double columns. The plants are 

 arranged alphabetically, from Abies to Zizyphus, and are 

 1039 in number. There is a second edition of this v/ork. 



Gerard was the first cultivator of the potato in England; 

 and, in the portrait which appears in both editions of 

 his *Herball,' he is represented with a sprig of the 

 plant in his hand. He was chairman of the company of 

 Barber- Surgeons, which two occupations w^ere conjoined, 

 even among the early Greeks and Romans. The Barber- 

 Chirurgeons were incorporated here in 143G, and their Hall 



z 



