18 MEMOIR OP 



?vho is supposed to have arrived in this country 

 during the reign of Elizabeth, and afterwards to 

 have been in the service of the Lord Treasurer 

 Salisbury, and Lord Wooton. He travelled into 

 various parts of Furope, and, in 1620, was on 

 board of a vessel forming pari of a fleet sent 

 against the Algerines. Availing himself of that 

 opportunity of pursuing his favourite studies, he 

 collected plants from Barbary and the Mediter- 

 ranean Islands, and a few years after we find him 

 settled at Lambeth, where he founded a celebrated 

 Botanic Garden ; and, in 1629, obtained the title 

 of Gardener to the King, (Charles I.) Here he 

 established his museum, which was the wonder of 

 the age, and was known as Tradescant's Ark. It- 

 was much frequented by the principal nobility, 

 who contributed specimens; and among the names 

 of these his " benefactors," as he terms them, 

 appear those of the King and Queen, Archbishop 

 Laud, the Duke and Duchess of Buckingham, &c. 

 At what period he died, we are not informed, 

 though it is conjectured about 1652 ; he was 

 certainly dead in 1656, when his son published 

 a catalogue of the contents of his " Ark,'* under 

 the following title : " Musseum Tradescantianum ; 

 or a Collection of Rarities Preserved at South 

 Lambeth, near London. 1 ' He arranges "the 

 materialls" under "two sorts; one Naturall, of 

 which some are more famiiiuuy known and named 



