xxxvi INTRODUCTION 



translation of his " De Plantis " ; and yet Theo- 

 phrastus's work is the prototype and direct progenitor 

 of the mediaeval and modern Herbals, most of which 

 have incorporated his doctrines. 



For the mental struggle he has had to undergo 

 between the rival claims of text and notes the Editor 

 while deciding in favour of more text hopes the critics 

 will give him credit for great self-denial. 



Think for instance of the corrections of spelling 

 and the scope for historical garden-lore in Evelyn's 

 "Summ of the Heads" of Chap. VII. lib. 3. of 

 his projected " Elysium Brittannicum " [post, pp. 

 178-182); or of the "note long drawn out" which 

 might have been written upon March-Payne, casually 

 mentioned by Evelyn at p. 175, and still dear to natives 

 of North Germany as " Marzipan " ! Why, the 

 Elizabethan dramatists alone would furnish a quarto 

 of quotations upon St. Mark's Bread (Marci Pants) ! 



What an opportunity for erudition do the names 

 Laurembergius and Jacob Bobart, and Curtius de 

 Hortls offer ! Here is a sample of what might 

 have been served up to the reader from this Hortus 

 Siccus : 



Pierre (Petras) Laurembergius, son of Gulielmus Laurem- 

 bergius (Physician and Mathematician, born 1547, died 



