iv PREFACE 



He had no use; for the superstitions of Ashmolc or 

 Aubre)-, nor would he, like Sir Kenelm Digby, have fed 

 his wife on capons fattened with the flesh of vijjers in 

 order to preserve her beauty. Nor would he, like the 

 credulous Sir R, Moray, have seen tiny geese, perfectly 

 shaped, in little shells adhering to trees among the western 

 islands of Scotland. 



His notes begin in 1616, show the period of his greatest 

 activity to have been in 162J, and become fewer after 

 1633. The material came into my hands in the form of 

 thousands of scraps of paper in disorder and in various 

 handwritings. These had first to be sorted and bound ; 

 and then, although Goodyer coukL and did generally 

 write a remarkably clear hand, his jotted notes are 

 scribbles, and exceedingly difficult to read. In some cases 

 weeks elapsed before the meaning of the more difficult 

 passages dawned upon me, and even with expert help, 

 there are still unread vv'ords in our text. Our readers 

 will kindly remember that many notes, that we have 

 printed as indications of occupations and interests, were 

 solely intended for the eye of the writer. 



Further biographical details have been gleaned from 

 visits to various parts of the country, from ledgers 

 relating to College estates, from the parish registers of 

 several Hampshire towns, from the account books of the 

 Weston Charity at Petersfield, from wills at Somerset 

 House. 



As the work progressed new facts relating to Goodyer's 

 botanical contemporaries emerged, which were scarcely 

 less interesting than those relating to himself. Except 

 in the papers which we now describe, there is no other 

 surviving record of their work for Botany or Horticulture. 

 This is due in some measure to the disturbances of the 

 Civil War, parti} too to the death of such workers as 



