[May, 1861.] 129 



CHAPTEES ON BRITISH BOTANY. 



CHAPTER VI. 



Dr. William Turner and the earlier British botanists. — The Father of English 

 botany. — Turner and Ray. — Dr. BuUeyn. — Dr. Thomas Gibson. — Gresner. — 

 Harrison. — Merrett.— Turner's influence on his contemporaries and on pos- 

 terity. — Plants of Northumberland, Cambridge, Middlesex, Kent, Somerset, 

 etc. — General List of British Plants described in the Herbal. 



Dr. William Turner^ the author of Turner's 'Herbal/ and also 

 of many other works, on theological controversy, medicine, etc., 

 has been very justly called the " Father of British Botany.'' He 

 is the first original English botanist, and he was evidently as well 

 read in the works of Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny, Paulus 

 Egineta, Avicenna, Simeon Seth, etc., as he was well acquainted 

 with the plants of England and Germany. His great work on 

 botany is the result of much observation and experience, and a 

 lasting monument of his industry, erudition, and critical judg- 

 ment. One of his contemporaries, Dr. BuUeyn, observes, that 

 his " Boke of Herbes will alwaies growe grene, and neuer wither 

 as long as Dioscorides is helde in minde by us mortal wights." 



The illustrious Mr. John Ray well deserves the honour of pre- 

 cedence among all English authors as the first who introduced 

 method or system into this branch of human knowledge ; so Dr. 

 William Turner was the first writer, in our vernacular, who added 

 the fruits of his own researches to the meagre compilations from 

 the ' Schola Salernitana,' E. Macer, Bartholomseus, the ' Grete 

 Herball,' Dr. Linacre's Macer, etc. etc. 



Dr. Pulteney, in his ' Sketches of the Progress of Botany in 

 England,' relates that " the true era of botany in England com- 

 mences with Dr. William Turner, the earliest, most judicious, 

 and most learned authority, whose abilities, both as a critic and 

 a philologist, are highly distinguished, and whose uncommon 

 diligence, learning, and originality have secured him a certain 

 passport to posterity." 



In the present series of chapters it is not proposed to enter, 

 with much detail, into the lives and works of our eminent bo- 

 tanists, but rather to ofifer succinct notices of the British plants 

 described in their works, stating when, where, and by whom they 

 were first observed ; but a little relaxation of our plan will be 



N. S. VOL. V. s 



