THE FLORA OF HANTS 117 



ing after and noting Hampshire plants. To this period 

 belong the labours of Matthias de 1'Obel, of John 

 Parkinson, and of Thomas Johnson, the learned editor 

 of Gerarde's Herbal, which he greatly enlarged and 

 improved, and which contains many new records of 

 Hampshire plants. This distinguished botanist, who 

 is said to have been " no less eminent in the garrison 

 for his valour and conduct as a soldier than famous 

 through the kingdom for his excellency as a herbalist 

 and physician," unfortunately lost his life in the his- 

 toric siege of Basing House, in the north of the county. 

 We are told that, "going with a party on September 

 14, 1644, to succour certain of the forces belonging to 

 that house, which went to the town of Basing to fetch 

 provisions thence, but, beaten back by the enemy, 

 headed by that notorious rebel, Colonel Richard 

 Norton, he received a shot in the shoulder, of which 

 he died in a fortnight after." 



Of other early botanists connected with Hampshire 

 in the first half of the seventeenth century, two names 

 deserve special mention, namely, Mr. John Goodyer 

 and Dr. Robert Turner, for they first discovered and 

 put on record many rare species of British plants. 

 Mr. John Goodyer, who seems to have been a person 

 of considerable means, and to have devoted his life to 

 the study of botany, lived at Maple Durham, a fine 

 old Tudor mansion, now, alas ! destroyed, in the parish 

 of Buriton, some two miles from Petersfield. We 

 learn from the Preface to Johnson's edition of Gerarde's 

 Herbal, published in 1633, that Goodyer largely con- 

 tributed to that work ; and, moreover, his observations 

 and discoveries are so printed " as they may be dis- 

 tinguished from the rest." Some years later, when 

 Merrett was preparing his Pinax } the botanical manu- 



