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TRADESCANT, JOHN. 



TRAJANUS, MARC L T 3 ULPIUS NERVA. 



150 



TRADESCANT, JOHN, the name of two naturalists, father and SOD, 

 who lived in England during the seventeenth century. John Tradescaut 

 the elder, is generally supposed to have been a Dutchman, but no record 

 occurs of the time of his birth or of his arrival in England. He does 

 not appear to have been known to Gerarde, who wrote his Herbal in 

 15 ( J7; but in Johnson's edition of this work, published in 1633, he is 

 frequently alluded to : hence Pulteney concludes that ho arrived iu 

 England between these periods, but various minute circumstances thai 

 have come to light render it probable that ho was really an English- 

 man. A note in that invaluable storehouse of out-of-the-way in 

 formation, ' Notes and Queries' (in several of the earlier volumes ol 

 which a great deal of new matter concerning the Tradescauts is 

 collected), shows that he was certainly resident at Meopham in Kent, 

 in 1608, there being in the parish register under August 3, an entry of 

 the baptism of his son John (' Notes and Queries,' vol. v. 266), and the 

 will of the younger Tradescant mentions the Tradescants of Walbers- 

 wick in Suffolk, in a way that would imply that they were his kinsmen 

 us well as namesakes. Early in life he had travelled in Europe and Asia, 

 and he occupied some position in the suite of Sir Dudley Diggs, am- 

 bassador to Russia in 1618. During a voyage up the Mediterranean, he 

 made collections of plants in Barbary and on the coasts of the Mediterra- 

 nean. In 1629 he was appointed gardener to Charles L, having pre- 

 viously been gardener to the lord-treasurer Salisbury, the Duke of Buck- 

 ingham, and other noblemen. He died in 1638. He left behind him a 

 large collection of specimens of natural history, coins, medals, and 

 ' rarities,' the first of the kind it is believed formed in this country, 

 and a garden well-stored with rare and curious plants. In the Ash- 

 moleau Library at Oxford is preserved a folio manuscript, entitled 

 ' Tradescant's Orchard, illustrated in sixty-five coloured drawings of 

 fruits, exhibiting various kinds of the apple, cherry, damson, date, 

 gooseberry, pears, peaches, plums, nectariues, grape, hasell-nut, quince, 

 strawberry, with the times of their ripening,' which is supposed to be in 

 the elder Tradescant's handwriting. 



JOHN TRADESCANT, the Younger, son of the above, was born in 

 August 1608, and inherited his fathers's taste for natural history. In 

 the early part of his life he made a voyage to Virginia, and brought 

 from that country a collection of dried plants and seeds. In 1656 he 

 published in 12mo a little work entitled ' Museum Tradescantium,' or 

 'A Collection of Rarities preserved at South Lambeth near London.' 

 It contains a descriptive catalogue of his father's museum, which he 

 had by his own exertions greatly augmented. This museum contained 

 not only stuffed animals and dried plants, but also minerals, instru- 

 ments of war and domestic use of various nations, also a collection of 

 coins and medals. This museum is remarkable as containing one of 

 the few specimens ever known of the Dodo, a bird now supposed to 

 be extinct. The catalogue of the museum is accompanied with good 

 engravings of the two Tradescants, and is sought after by print- 

 collectors on this account. The younger Tradescant was intimate 

 with most of the celebrated men of his time, and his collection of 

 natural objects was visited and aided by the most distinguished 

 persons of the day. In 1650 he became acquainted with Mr. Elias 

 Ashmolo, who, with his wife, lived in his house during the summer of 

 1652. The result of this was so close a friendship, that Tradescant, 

 by a deed of gift, dated December 15, 1657, made over his museum of 

 natural history to Ashmole, the gift to take effect after bis death. He 

 died April 22, 1662 ; leaving a will in which his museum was be- 

 queathed to his wife Hester Tradescaut during her life, " and after her 

 decease to the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge, to which of them 

 she shall think fit." No mention is made of Ashmole in this will, but 

 that zealous antiquary was little disposed to forego his claim to the 

 " closet of rarities." Accordingly we find this entry in his ' Diary/ 

 about a month after Tradescant's death: "May 30, 1662. This 

 Easter term I preferred a bill in Chancery against Mrs. Tradescant, for 

 the rai'ities her husband had settled on me." From the documents of 

 this Chancery suit (which Dr. Hamel of St. Petersburg, who had 

 become interested in the history of the Tradescants, and with rare 

 patience investigated the obscurer portions of it, has in a visit to 

 England succeeded in examining), it appears that Ashmole was unable 

 to produce the deed of gift, which he avers Mrs. Tradescant, to whom 

 he entrusted it, had "burned or otherwise destroyed;" and Mrs. 

 Tradescant on the other hand, without apparently denying that such 

 a deed had been executed, pleaded that by her husband's will, dated 

 May 4, 1661, all previous dispositions of his property were annulled, 

 aud the museum left expressly to her alone, with the stipulation 

 already-mentioned, which she intended to fulfil by bequeathing it to 

 the University of Oxford. The Lord Chancellor (Clarendon) in his 

 judgment set aside the bequest, and gave effect to the asserted terms 

 of the deed of gift, adjudging Ashmolo to " have and enjoy " the 

 entire contents of the museum, "subject to the trust for the de- 

 fendant during her life." Mrs. Tradescant was found drowned in the 

 pond in her husband's garden, April 3, 1678. Ashmole considerably 

 increased the museum and added to it his library, and having after- 

 wards bequeathed it to the university of Oxford, it iinjustly bears the 

 name of the Ashmolean Museum. [ASHMOLE, ELIAS.] The remains 

 of the garden of the Tradescants were still at Lambeth in 1749, when 

 it was visited by Sir W. Watson and described by him iu the 46th 

 volume of the ' Philosophical Transactions.' The widow of the younger 

 Tradescant erected a singular and handsome tomb^to the memory of 



father and son, which is still to be seen iu the churchyard at Lambeth : 

 it was restored by subscription two or three years back. The Tra- 

 descants introduced a great number of new plants into Great Britain. 

 Amongst others a species of spider-wort thus brought over was called 

 Tradescant's Spider-wort. It has since been formed into the type 

 of a genus with the name Tradescantia, and has a large number of 

 species. 



TRAGUS HIERO'NYMUS (whoso German name was Bock, and 

 whom the French call Le Boucq), a German botanist of the sixteenth 

 century. He was born at Heidesbach in 1498. In early life he 

 received a good education, and became well acquainted with the 

 ancient languages. He was appointed master of a school at Zwei- 

 brucken ; after this he studied medicine, but having embraced the 

 reformed religion, he became a preacher, and was till his death 

 minister at Hornbach. His medical studies directed his attention to 

 the subject of botany, which he pursued with great ardour throughout 

 his life. Up to his time no advances had been made in the science of 

 botany from the times of Pliny and Dioscorides. The Arabian 

 writers had satisfied themselves with copying Greek and Roman 

 writers, and making comments upon them without adding any new 

 observations. Tragus was born at a time when the human mind was 

 beginning to emancipate itself from the thraldom of authority both in 

 science and religion. Instead of taking for granted all that had been 

 written about plants, he commenced observing for himself. The same 

 spirit also manifested itself in his contemporaries, Brunfels, Fuchs, and 

 Gessner ; with these great naturalists he was on terms of intimacy, 

 and the first result of his labours in botany was published in 1531, in 

 a work entitled ' Herbarium,' by Brunfels, with the name ' Disserta- 

 tiones de Herbarium Nomenclaturis ad Brunfelsiam.' 



In 1539 Tragus published his great work on which his reputation 

 depends. It was written in German, and entitled ' Neu-Kreiiter- 

 buch vom Unterschiede, Wurkung und Nahmen der Kreiiter, so in 

 Deutschland wachsen,' folio, Strasburg. In all previous modern works 

 on botany the plants had been arranged alphabetically, but in this 

 work Tragus adopted a natural classification, which, whatever may be 

 its defects, has the merit of being the first modern attempt at the 

 classification of plants. He divided the vegetable kingdom into three 

 classes: 1, wild plants with odoriferous flowers; 2, trefoils, grains, 

 potherbs, and creeping plants ; 3, trees and shrubs. This classification 

 is of course exceedingly imperfect; it however served to open the 

 way to better systems. He commences his work with a description of 

 the nettle, and for this two reasons are assigned : 1, That he wished 

 to teach persons engaged in the practice of medicine not to despise 

 the meanest plants ; and 2, that the nettle was his family badge. The 

 first edition of this work was published without illustrations, but in 

 1546 an edition was published containing upwards of 300 wood-cuts. 

 To Tragus, Fuchs, and Brunfels belongs the merit of having com- 

 menced the illustration of works of natural history with wood- 

 engravings. Haller says that he was ' homo jocularis,' and in hifl 

 representation of plants this is made evident by the addition of 

 figures illustrative of their medicinal effects. Thus Pyramus and 

 Thisbe are stationed at the foot of the mulberry-tree; ^Esop is 

 demonstrating his innocence under a fig-tree ; and Noah surrounded 

 by his three sous is chosen as an illustration of the effects of the vine. 

 Many of the wood-cuts were good, and most of them were copied 

 into the various herbals that were published in the 16th and 17th 

 centuries. The descriptions of the plants are short aud some- 

 what obscure ; they were however original, and the structure of plants 

 was but very imperfectly understood in the time of Tragus. He has 

 ;iven the Hebrew and Arabic names of the plants, as well as the 

 Jreek and Latin, but in these synonyms he exerted too little care in 

 ;he identification of the German plants with those of ancient writers. 

 Two editions of the engravings of this work with the names of the 

 plants were published at Strasburg by Trew, in 1550 and 1553, under 

 ;he title, ' Vivse atque ad Vivum Expressse Imagines omnium Herba- 

 rum in Bock Herbario depictarum Icones solse,' 4 to. 



A Latin edition of the Kreiiterbuch was published by Kyber in 

 L552. This edition has a learned preface written by Conrad Gessner. 

 ^t is sometimes spoken of as a separate work of Tragus. It has for 

 ts title, ' Hieronyini Tragi de Stirpium maxime earum quse in Ger- 

 manuia nostra nascuntur, &c. libri tres in Latinam linguam conversi, 

 interprete David Kyber Argentinensi, Argent.,' 4to. Several editions 

 of the German book have been published ; the best of these is that of 

 1695, which was edited by Melchior Sebitz and Nicolas Agerius. 

 Tragus died at Hornbach in 1554. 



TRAJA'NUS, MA'RCUS U'LPIUS NE'RVA, was most probably 

 born in 52 or 53 A.D., at Italica, the present Alcala del Rio, on the 

 Guadalquivir, not far from Seville in Spain. He was the son of one 

 Trajan, who was descended from an old Spanish or Iberian family, aud 

 who is said to have been a consul (Eutropius, viii. c. 2) ; but his name 

 is not found in the Fasti Cousulares. Eutropius gives to Ulpius 

 Trajanus the surname of ' Crinitus,' perhaps because he wore his hair 

 long, as did his countrymen the Iberians. Trajan the elder having 

 obtained a command in Asia Minor, went there, accompanied by his 

 son, who distinguished himself at an early age in the wars against the 

 Parthians and the Jews. He became consul in A.D. 91, together with 

 Acilius Glabrio. After he had discharged his function he went to 

 Spain, and he afterwards commanded the legions on the Lower Rhine. 



