94 Transactions British Mycological Society. 



venomous quality of the one, and that the other which is lesse 

 venomous may be discerned from it, I haue thought good to 

 set forth their figures, their names, and places of growth." 

 There is no attempt at classification except that they are divided 

 into edible and non-edible, but there are fairly good woodcuts 

 of seventeen species including the Fly mushroom, a Clavaria, 

 apparently aurea, Jew's ear, Clathrus cajtcellatus, Morel, Stink- 

 horn, and a kind of Tuber. It may be noted that the Morel 

 is put among the non-edible Fungi, and that the figure of 

 Clathrus was taken, as well as almost all the others, from the 

 Icones of Tabernaemontanus, published in 1590. 



Another well-known Herbal was published in 1640 by John 

 Parkinson under the title of Theatrum Botanicum. He calls 

 himself " Pharmacopaeus and King's Botanist." Among the 

 4000 plants which he attempts to describe are 64 Fungi — 32 

 wholesome and 32 dangerous. His figures are mostly the same 

 as Gerard's, figures that did duty in other botanical books of 

 the period, the blocks having been brought from the Continent. 

 His classification and descriptions shew no improvement on 

 those of Gerard. 



Parkinson was the last of the Herbalists. Their notions of 

 the nature and affinity of plants were of the crudest. Anything 

 that could be called a system of classification was unknown to 

 them. They still burned incense religiously to Theophrastus 

 and Dioscorides, whose authority they would regard it as 

 little short of blasphemy to question, and whose wildest flights 

 of fancy they quote with evident approval. One looks through 

 their huge tomes with admiration of their industry and zeal, 

 but with amazement at their naive simplicity and lack of a 

 scientific spirit. Their merit lies in their collection of so many 

 plants, however disorderly it may be, and in their illustrative 

 woodcuts. Fungi have naturally suffered most at their hands, 

 even those that required no microscope for their observation. 

 In justice to them we must remember that they had no books 

 to refer to which could throw light upon the subject. They 

 were dealing with the very beginnings of a diificult branch of 

 Botany, and little could be expected of them. 



Taking leave of these, we pass into the next century to notice 

 a work which marks an epoch in British Botany — the Synopsis 

 methodica stirpium Britannicarum of John Ray, first published 

 in 1690 and third edition in 1724, after his death. Ray, the 

 son of an Essex blacksmith, went to Cambridge and afterwards 

 took Holy Orders. Two of his sermons were famous in their 

 day. At College he lectured on Greek, Mathematics and Latin 

 successively. Leaving it in 1662 he gave himself entirely to 

 his favourite study of plants, travelling in search of them 



