so JOHN GOODYER 



a year, but now we have another who did lye at y^ King's armes 

 in Shoe Lane, the place where the old foot-post lay, but nowe he 

 is removed to another place which yet I doe not know. I have 

 left at M''^ Capells (for Mr. Capell ^ they tell me is dedd since my 

 last being with you) a small plant of our Wich Hasell which 

 I take to be Vlnnis latifolia lobelii: it came from seed this last 

 year. I have seen y*^ leaves of them this somer twise as brode as 

 I saw any of y^ leaves of our Common I^lm. This desiring that 

 God do bless you with health and happiness to your great Comfort, 

 I comitt you to Gods protection and rest 



to you my bounden 

 [Unsigned] 

 From my Lodging at the Red Lyon 

 in Fleet Street, London, the 7 of November 1618. 



Yf at any tyme you wright to me you may direct your letters to 

 be left at Mr. Tho. Johnsons [a Tayler (erased)\ at the signe of the 

 Raynedeare without Temple Barre neare St. Clements Church, 

 where our foot-post shall endever to have them. [MS. f. 2 



This letter is of great interest because it is the earliest 

 evidence for the Willow herb, ' something like to Lysi- 

 machia' (he found it on 27 August), and for the Autumn 

 Crocus in Wiltshire. It settles the question of the priority 

 of the discovery of the Water Plantain, Damasoniiim 

 Alisma, as a British plant, in favour of our author rather 

 than of Johnson. It also dates his first recognition of the 

 Wych Elm {Ulmiis montana Stokes) as a distinct species 

 of English timber tree. Apparently it was growing at 

 Droxford and was known to Goodyer by its south-country 

 name of Witch Hazel. Now this name has been generally 

 superseded by the northern name of Wych Elm. I have 

 no doubt that by this observation at an early period of his 

 career, his eye became trained and apt to distinguish the 

 two other elms which he was the first to describe. His 



' At a later period Capel was quite one of the best-known names in connexion 

 with English gardens. Sir Henry Capel began horticulture at Kew, his brother 

 Lord Capel made one of the most beautiful gardens of the seventeenth century 

 at Cassiobury, and Mary Somerset {tiic Capel) had a botanic garden at 

 Badmington, but there is of course no evidence that (ioodycr's friend was ' born 

 in the I'urple '. 



