HIS STUDY OF HERBS. 89 



this period those of plants, as far as they were medicinal 

 herbs in medical botany ; and of the stars in astronomy. 



It was not till he was forty years old that he was 

 introduced to scientific Botany proper, which became the 

 enthusiasm of the next forty years, after his fortunate 

 meeting with the friend of his life, Charles Black. 



Before this meeting, however, John's knowledge of plants 

 was neither small nor uninteresting, as it could scarcely be 

 with so humorous and practical a master as Culpepper. 

 We have seen how he began the study while yet in his 

 teens, during his apprenticeship at Drumlithie, and how he 

 early purchased a copy of Culpepper. Notwithstanding 

 his strange-looking name, Culpepper was an Englishman, 

 born in London in 1616, and dying in 1654. His book 

 is curious and interesting, bearing on its front that it 

 contains " nearly four hundred medicines made from 

 English herbs, physically applied to the cure of all dis- 

 orders incident to man, with rules for compounding them," 

 by "Nicholas Culpepper, Student in Physic and Astrology." 



Of each plant, it gives a description, sometimes pretty 

 minute, though popular and unscientific ; the places where 

 it was to be found ; its flowering time ; its " government," 

 according to the astrological influences under which it 

 should be gathered, to possess potency ; and its " virtues " 

 or the diseases it was held to cure, with directions for 

 preparation and use. It contains a deal of queer, old- 

 world learning. 



Nicholas Culpepper's style is quaint, with a touch 

 of biblical antiqueness, often dryly humorous, and not 

 seldom rudely outspoken. He does not describe the elder 

 tree, for instance, " since every boy that plays with a pop- 



