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THE FUNG] OF GEKARDE'S HERBAL. 

 By E. C. PLOWRIGHT, Esq. 



Few circumstaiue^ teud more to enhance the interest we take in any study 

 than oar coming across ajme allusion to it in the writings of antiquity. 

 Whether this arises from the idea of other persons drawing enjoyment from 

 the same source as ourselves, or from the fact that a long genealogy com- 

 m mds respect, it is not for me to say. To the casual observer the connexion 

 existing between history and botany would appear as remote as it was possible 

 to iaiaghie two things to be, and that the history of botany per se could consist 

 of but little else than a chronicle of strange names, or, at most, that might be 

 curious to knoiv into what errors our forefathers fell. Such, for example, as 

 the miraculous vegetable origin of the barnacle goose. 



A moment's reflection, however, will suffice to convince us that we are in- 

 deljtid to history to an incalculable extent. When any fresh botanical fact is 

 discovered, unless it is duly chronicled and made a matter of history, it ob- 

 viously dies with the discoverer, and, as far as he is concerned, for ever lost to 

 the world. 



The ground work of botany, and indeed of every other science, consists of 

 an agregation of individual experiences. From time to time some master mind 

 arises which has the power and the will to systematize these, and of deducing 

 certain generalizations from thetn; thus reducing to order what before was 

 chaos. 



It form-! no part of my intention this evening to go into the history of 

 mycology, although such a procedure would be fraught with interest, but sim- 

 ply to enumerate the fungi figured in one of the very early books on botany 

 that was printed in our own land. By title, at least, Gerarde's Herbal is 

 familiar to all of us. 



John Gerarde was a master of the Cihirurgians Company, who in the year 

 1.5'J7 published the first edition of the Hei bal which bears his name. This work 

 if said to be in great part, at leMt, a translation from from the Latin of a 

 previous work by Dodonitua ; although the arrangement of the material it con- 

 tains is different, being that employed by the great Lobel. But more than 

 this, there seems great reason to doubt whether even this translation was e.\e- 

 luted by Gerarde, he having been accused of employing without acknowledg- 

 ment the manuscript of one made by a Dr. Priest. Leaving all these considera- 

 tions on one side, we know that in the course of thirty-six years a 

 second and much larger edition was produced under the auspices of 

 Mr. William Johnson. This ponderous folio volume contains an 



