1861.] CHAPTERS ON BRITISH BOTANY. 135 



When Queen Mary died, he returned to his native country, 

 and was reinstated in all his Church preferments. The third part 

 of the 'HerbaP was printed by the same printer in 1566, and 

 has the following title:— 'The Thirde Parte of Wm. Turner's 

 Herbalb contayning the Herbes, Rootes, and Fruytes whereof is 

 no mention made of Dioscoi'icles , Galene, Plinye, and other olde 

 authors. Imprinted at Collen, by Arnold Birckman, in the year 

 of our Lord 1566.' The dedication is to the Company of Sur- 

 geons, and is dated from Wells, June 24th, 1564. 



In 1568 all the three parts were reprinted at Cologne, in black- 

 letter, with a dedication to Queen Elizabeth. This was the year 

 of the author's death."^ 



There are several reasons why the first rank, the most honour- 

 able place, should, among tbe early botanists of England, be as- 

 signed to Dr. Wm. Turner; for, first, his knowledge was multi- 

 farious, not merely as a naturalist, but as a scholar ; secondly, 

 he was a good philologist, being well acquainted with the lan- 

 guages of Greece and Rome, in which all science at that period 

 was communicated, and, besides this accomplishment, common to 

 all learned men, he was well acquainted with German, which was 

 then called Dutch, as it still is in Germany, and also with French, 

 Italian, and English; thirdly, he condescended to write his 

 ' Herbal ' in our vernacular, in a language scouted by the learned 

 at this early period ; fourthly, to his extensive knowledge of 

 plants he added something still more useful and attractive, a 



* Hodgeson, as quoted above, gives the following lionoiu'able testimony to the 

 merits of Dr. Turner : — ■" William Turner, M.D., a native of Morpeth, is a cha- 

 racter whom I wish from the first to introduce to my readers as one entitled to 

 high consideration for his learning and labours. No one wiU dispute the compe- 

 tency of Conrad Gesner to pronoimce judgment on tlie scholars and natm-al histo- 

 rians of his time ; and he, in the preface to his History of Birds, printed in 1555, 

 has said that before himself a few in modern times had briefly written on the names 

 and natm-es of birds, among whom Gyb. Longohus, a German, and William 

 Turner, an Englishman, were both men of the greatest leaiming and deserving of 

 the highest praise." Also, in his book 'De Herbis Limariis,' he says, — "About 

 fifteen years since, Tiu:ner, an Englishman, returnuig out of Italy, paid me a visit, 

 and I found him a man of such excellent learning, both in medicine and most 

 other sciences, that I can scarcely mention such another." 



WiUiam Han-ison, another contemporary of Dr. Tiu:"ner's, in his 'Historica 

 Descriptio Britannise,' under " Bath," calls him " Dr. Turner, the father of English 

 physicke," and in another place " the famous clei-k. Doctor Turner." 



" Turner," says Dr. Merrett, in his ' Pinax,' " was the most indefatigable man of 

 his age, and published a book on birds, Uttle in size but great in value." 



