“CHAP, II. BRITISH ISLANDS. 39 
sixteen were introduced. Among these were the sweet bay, the 
almond, the apricot, the pomegranate, the mulberry, the pla- 
tanus, the stone pine, the common spruce fir, the cypress, and 
the savin juniper. The names of the introducers, or first cul- 
tivators, are almost entirely unknown, and, indeed, it is probable 
that most of the plants named at this early period had been in 
the country many years previously; some of them, as the rose- 
mary, the thyme, the southernwood, the sweet bay, the apricot, 
&c., possibly from the time of the Romans; or, at all events, 
from the period of the establishment of religious houses in 
England. Among these plants, there are only two from ultra- 
European countries: the almond, from Barbary; and the jas- 
mine, from the East Indies. 
From 1551 to 1596, during the reign of Mary and the 
.greater part of that of Elizabeth, twenty-four plants were first 
recorded, among which were the peach, the nectarine, and the 
walnut, from Persia; and the damask rose, the quince, and the 
Quércus J‘lex. The names of the introducers are not known, , 
with few exceptions; such as that of Hugh Morgan, apothecary 
to Queen Elizabeth; Gray, a London apothecary, mentioned by 
L’Obel; L’Obel, a Fleming, who was afterwards botanist to 
James I.; and Dr. Grindal, who was bishop of London, and after- 
wards archbishop of York and Canterbury, during the greater 
part of the reign of Elizabeth. From 1596 to the end of the 
century, forty-six different species were introduced, and upwards 
of thirty of these were first recorded by Gerard. Among these 
were, the English and Scotch laburnums, the altheea frutex, the 
Judas tree; the musk, the yellow and the hundred-leaved roses ; 
the cotoneaster, Christ’s thorn, Cornus mas, the common syringa, 
the laurustinus, the lilac, and the phillyrea. Most of these are 
from the continent and south of Europe; and there are, in this 
period, also, the arbor vitee and the yucca, from North America. 
Thus, the total number of foreign woody plants which are 
_known to have been cultivated in Britain during the 16th cen- 
tury is only eighty-four, exclusive of two varieties of the lau- 
rustinus, and nine of the phillyrea. 
It is impossible, at this distance of time, to ascertain the names. 
of all the persons to whom we are indebted for the introduction 
of these plants; but it is-certain that the merit of the first 
cultivation of the greater part of them belongs decidedly to 
Gerard. _ 
Jobn Gerard, Pulteney informs us, was born at Nantwich in 
Cheshire, in 1545, educated as a surgeon, and patronised in 
London by Lord Burleigh, who had at that time the best col- 
lection of plants in the kingdom. Gerard superintended this 
nobleman’s garden, which was in the Strand; Gerard himself 
living in Holborn, where he had a physic garden, considered 
