4 HISTORICAL NOTES 



this and his other works, the number of foreign trees and shrubs- 

 enumerated barely amount to thirty. But it is quite probable, with the 

 lack of intercommunication then prevailing, that others were in cultivation 

 in the country unknown to him. 



In 1597, nearly fifty years after the appearance of Turner's first work, 

 a famous Herbal was published by John Gerard. Gerard was bom at 

 Nantwich in 1545, and was trained as a surgeon, which profession, as well 

 as that of apothecary, he practised in London. For the purpose probably 

 of supplying his own simples, he established a physic, or botanic garden 

 at Holborn. From his Herbal and other sources of information, it 

 appears that by the end of the sixteenth century about one hundred 

 foreign trees and shrubs were in cultivation in England. Of big trees, 

 there were the Oriental plane, holm oak, common spruce, Pinus 

 Pinaster, Cupressus sempervirens, as well as the walnut, stone pine, and 

 sweet chestnut previously mentioned. It is interesting to note also, 

 as recorded by Gerard, the cultivation in 1596 of two woody plants of 

 American origin, Yucca gloriosa and Thuya occidentals s^ the first apparently 

 of their country. 



Gerard died about 1607, an( ^ after him the next great herbalist was 

 John Parkinson (1567-1650), a London apothecary in the service of 

 James I., and the author of a herbal and other works. He was one of 

 the most noteworthy cultivators in the early seventeenth century who 

 interested themselves in the introduction of new plants. By Aiton he 

 is credited with introducing, or it is perhaps more correct to say, being 

 the first to cultivate, about forty trees and shrubs, all from N. America or 

 Europe. The influx of new trees and shrubs from N. America proceeded 

 slowly during the seventeenth century, but about fifty species appear to 

 have become established in Britain. 



Two names which frequently occur in connection with the introduction 

 of new woody plants about the middle of the seventeenth century are 

 those of the two Tradescants, who, between 1640 and 1656, have attri- 

 buted to them about twenty species. The elder John Tradescant 

 appears to have been a Dutchman who came to England about the end 

 of the sixteenth century. He is said to have been a considerable 

 traveller in Europe, N. Africa, and the Orient. About 1629 he was 

 appointed gardener to Charles I. He had a garden and museum at 

 Lambeth, and died about 1652. His son, John Tradescant the 

 younger, was a man of similar tastes and carried on the museum and 

 garden at Lambeth. In 1656 he published a catalogue of the plants 

 grown in the latter. He travelled in N. America, especially Virginia, 

 whence he introduced the locust tree (Robinia Pseudacacid], Juglans 

 cinerea, Acer rubrum, Celtis occidentalis, and the American plane. These 

 and others he propagated for sale. He died in 1662. 



