30 THE MUSIC OF WILD FLOWERS 



was one of intense personal pleasure. Unfortunately 

 the preface is wanting in our Cathedral copy of the 

 Herbal, but I may venture to quote the following pass- 

 age from Mrs Arber's excellent translation : 



" But there is no reason why I should dilate at greater 

 length upon the pleasantness and delight of acquiring 

 knowledge of plants, since there is no one who does not 

 know that there is nothing in this life pleasanter and 

 more delightful than to wander over woods, mountains, 

 plains, garlanded and adorned with flowerets and plants 

 of various sorts, and most elegant to boot, and to gaze 

 intently upon them. But it increases that pleasure and 

 delight not a little if there be added an acquaintance 

 with the virtues and powers of those same plants." 



In turning to our Cathedral copy of Fuchs' Herbal, 

 which possesses the original oak boards, it is interesting 

 to find that, as was so frequently the case with the early 

 printers, some vellum leaves of a Latin] manuscript 

 have been employed in binding, both at the beginning 

 and end of the volume. It is also noticeable that our 

 woodcuts have been coloured in the most accurate and 

 artistic manner. So excellently has the work been done 

 that it is hardly possible to believe that the illustrations 

 are hand-painted. And the colouring is as scientifi- 

 cally correct as the general appearance is artistic. It is 

 clearly the work of one who had no mean botanical 

 knowledge. The whole of the 500 folio engravings of 

 plants are painted, and so are the portraits of Fuchs 

 and his assistants, and the printer's mark at the end of 

 the volume, consisting of the well-known holly-tree, 

 with a slab and the words Palma. Ising. But what 

 gives our Cathedral copy a special and peculiar interest 



