1862.] CHAPTERS ON BRITISH BOTANY. 207 



edition of Gerard's ' HerbalP was published some years before Par- 

 kinson's ' Theatrum Botanicura' (theatre of plants), the author 

 of the latter was born maiiy years before Johnson. 



The subject of this notice was born in 1567, according to Dr. 

 Pulteney, who further tells his readers that his ' Paradisus ' was 

 dedicated to Queen Elizabeth ; it is dedicated " to the Queene's 

 most excellent Majestic/' but not to the celebrated Queen, who 

 had now, in 1629, been dead above twenty years (twenty-three 

 years) . 



In this early work mention is made of several rare English 

 plants, which were known to Parkinson as natives of our isle : 

 for example, our two Hellebores, which " grow in divers places 

 within eight or nine miles of London ; " also that " the blew 

 Periwinkle groweth in many woods and orchards by the hedge- 

 sides in England." This original work will convince those who 

 value only the far-fetched and the costly, that our own land pro- 

 duces many of the most curious and beautiful species of orna- 

 mental flowers, for example. Snowdrops, Crocuses, Daffodils, 

 Tulips, Pinks, Anemones, Columbines, and many more with 

 which the great treasury of. nature is so abundantly stored. 



Sprengel, in his history, ' Rei Herbariae Historia,' lib. v. cap. 

 iv. vol. ii. p. 14-1, mentions. Parkin son as the royal gardener, or 

 superintendent of the garden at Hampton Court. What autho- 

 rity the learned historian of Botany had for this fact he does not 

 state. Pulteney merely says that he had conferred on him, by 

 Charles the First, the honorary title of Botanicus regius pri- 

 marius. If the Hampton Court garden was founded by the great 

 Queen, or even patronized by her, John Parkinson might have 

 been, as Sprengel states, its first superintendent. His ' Paradisi 

 in Sole,' ' Paradisus terrestris,' is an ample testimony, both to 

 his ability and energy. 



The numbers of Tulips, Narcissuses, Carnations, Pinks, Cro- 

 cuses, Anemones, etc. then cultivated, might even still excite our 

 admiration and our sense of obligation to the botanists and 

 florists of that early period, and show that our predecessors were 

 not unsuccessful cultivators, though they had but few of the 

 modern mechanical appliances which are now so commonly 

 adopted in the service of floriculture. 



The Earthly Paradise is divided into three parts, viz. flowers 

 for ornament, culinary plants, and fruit-trees. The number of 



