INTRODUCTION CV 



William Coles, or Cole, has given us the next additions to the Berk- Coles. 

 shire list. These will be found in the publication Adam in Ecleri, or 

 Nature's Paradise. The History of Plants, Fruits, Herbs and Flowers with their 

 several names, ichether Greek, Latin, or English; the places where they groiv ; 

 their descriptions and kinds; their times of flowering and decreasing; as also 

 their several signatures, &c. Lond. 1657. Many testimonials are pre- 

 fixed to it. The writer of one says : — 



' In yew there 's poyson, though there 's none in you .... 

 He say no more, your Books themselves will praise, 

 And every garden yield you verdant Bayes ; 

 And they that find the good with all their souls 

 Will ^wdsh Newcastle may send all such Coles.' 



Mr. Wliarton finishes another metrical testimonial by urging him 



thus : — 



' Go on (Brave Soul) and perfect this Design 

 Whilst we conspire to make your glory shine, 

 And (with respect to learning) fancy still, 

 That Coles have writ, as fair, as any Quill.' 



Coles was born at Adderbury in Oxfordshire in 1626. After the 

 usual elementary instruction he entered at Merton College, and took 

 the degree of B.A. in 1650. He afterwards settled at Putney, and 

 published in 1656 the Art of Simpling, dedicated to Elias Ashniole, 

 and in 1657 the work mentioned above. Upon the Eestoration of 

 Charles II he was appointed Secretary to Dr. Duppa, Bishop of Win- 

 chester. He died at the early age of thirty-six. His additions to the 

 flora of Oxfordshire were important and interesting, but he con- 

 tributed only four species to the Berkshire list. These ure Lily of the 

 Valley and The Yellow Archangel, the Bound-leaved Sundeio from Bagley 

 Wood, and the Addefs Tongue from near Botley. Coles also mentions 

 the Butcher s Broom, Birthwort, and Utricidaria as occurring in the county. 



In 1658 the Catalogue of the Oxford Garden, already alluded to, 

 was republished in a much improved form by the joint labours of 

 Dr. Phillip Stephens, Fellow of New College and sometime Principal 

 of Magdalen Hall, William Browne. Fellow of Magdalen College, who 

 will be noticed again further on, Jacob Bobart, the first Keeper of the 

 Garden, and his son Jacob Bobart, afterwards Professor of Botany 

 at Oxford, under the title, Cafcdogus Horti Botanici Oxoniensis. The 

 references given by the authors of this Catalogue to the pagina- 

 tion of the various writers who are cited appears to be the earliest 

 British instance of the kind. One plant is given in it as coining 

 from Berkshire, ' Cynoglossum flore albiclo, Bauh. Pin., Whitish Hound's- 

 tongue, brought from Eeading, where it was shewed us by Mr. Wat- 

 lington.' This is C. officinale, forma alba. There is also an Oxfordshire 

 locality given for a Potamogeton, which is probably P. pectinatus. Three 

 laudatoi'y poems are prefixed to the Catalogue. 



