40 HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TREES. PART I. 



to be at that time the most remarkable in Enj2;land for the 

 number and variety of its productions. This garden appears by 

 the okl maps to have been situated on the brow of the hill be- 

 tween what is now Ely Place, and what was formerly the Fleet 

 lliver, but what is now called Field Lane, the stream being 

 arched over. Gerard appears to have practised as a surgeon 

 and apothecary, supplying his prescriptions from his garden. 

 He was the author of several works, the principal of which are 

 his Catalofjve and his Herbal. The first edition of the former is 

 dedicated to Lord Burleigh, and the second to Sir Walter 

 Kaleigh. It enumerates nearly 1100 sorts of plants, of foreign 

 and domestic growth, all of which (as attested by L'Obel) were 

 to be found in his garden in Holborn. Gerard died about the 

 year 1607, highly respected by the college of physicians and by 

 all his contemporaries. 



SuBSECT. 3. Of the Foreign Trees and Shrxtbs introduced into Britain 

 in the Ylth Ccntunj. 



Tra DESCANT appears to have come to England towards the 

 end of the preceding century. Wood says he was a Dutchman ; 

 that he was in the service of Lord Treasurer vSalisbury, Lord 

 Wootton, and the Duke of Buckingham ; and that, about 1629, 

 he obtained the title of gardener to Charles I. He is said to 

 have travelled over a great part of Europe, and to have gone into 

 Barbary, Greece, Egypt, and other Eastern countries, in quest 

 of plants and natural curiosities. He had a garden at Lambeth, 

 and a museum there ; in the former of which he cultivated many 

 plants, and, as appears by a Catalogue published by his son, in 

 1G56, some trees and shrubs. Tradescant's garden and mu- 

 seum were probably not commenced till after he had retired 

 from the service of private noblemen, and entered into that of 

 the king, which would giv^e its origin about 1630. Trades- 

 cant's son travelled in Virginia, and introduced various new 

 plants from that country. Tradescant, senior, died about 1652. 

 Tradescant's garden was visited, in 1749, by Dr. Mitchell 

 and Dr. (afterwards Sir) William Watson, F.R.S. ; but at that 

 distant period they found very few trees. Among these, how- 

 ever, were Schubertm disticha, Robinm Pseiid-y^cacia; /^hamnus 

 catharticus, about 20 ft. high, and nearly a foot in diameter ; an 

 -Aristolochia, and several mulberry trees. {Phil. Irans. Abr , 

 X. 740.) These were but a few of the species of trees cultivated 

 by Tradescant ; as ai)pears by the Catalogue published by 

 his son, and by the list at the end of this section. 



From a memorandum by Dr. Gray, in his copy of the Horti 

 Regit Hamptoniensis, kc, now in the British Museum, we learn 

 that many of the plants enumerated in that catalogue were 



