122 THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



And yet to the naturalist and archaeologist the 

 county is far from unattractive. There is a quiet 

 charm about it which those only who have lived in it 

 can fully appreciate. Colchester alone, not to mention 

 the ancient parish churches, the ruined priories, the 

 mediaeval halls and manor-houses, will suffice to render 

 the county dear to the lover of antiquity. The number 

 of sea-fowl, which still haunt the estuaries and the 

 salt-marshes, is an unfailing source of interest to the 

 ornithologist; while to the botanist the flora of Essex 

 is one of peculiar fascination. This is due not only to 

 the number of species to which it can lay claim, but 

 also, and chiefly, to the fact of its intimate association 

 with the early botanists and herbalists. 



English botany, as we have already observed, may 

 be said to begin with Dr. William Turner, who was 

 Dean of Wells in the reign of Edward VI., and who 

 published the first edition of his Herbal in the year 

 1551. In this herbal, which is now a very scarce 

 book, he describes upwards of three hundred British 

 species; and in many instances he gives the exact 

 localities in which he had found the plants growing. 

 These entries are the earliest records of the kind in 

 English literature, and are therefore of exceptional 

 interest to the lover of country life. Essex, however, 

 was not one of the counties best known to " Master 

 Dr. Turner." He states, however, that mistletoe and 

 the butcher's broom are to be found in Essex, and 

 of one rare plant he gives the exact locality. The 

 green hellebore, or " Syterwurt," grows, he says, " in 

 greate plentye in a parke besyde Colchester " ; and 

 this, it is interesting to remember, is the earliest record 

 of the locality of a native plant in the Essex flora. 

 Whether it is still to be found in Turner's habitat 



