116 THE OLD ENGLISH HERBALS 



immigrants introduced it in the early seventeenth century. 

 Parsnips, turnips and spinach were also rarities. With the 

 exception of the wild cabbage, the whole brassica tribe were 

 unknown to us till the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 

 Potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes were both introduced into 

 this country in Tudor days. Gerard was one of the first to grow 

 potatoes, and he proudly tells us, "I have received hereof from 

 Virginia roots which grow and prosper in my garden as in their 

 own native countrie." He was, in fact, the originator of the 

 popular but incorrect epithet "Virginia potato." The potato 

 was not a native of Virginia, nor was it cultivated there in Tudor 

 times. The Spaniards brought it from Quito in 1580, and Gerard 

 had it in his garden as early as 1596. The potato to which 

 Shakespeare refers (Troilus and Cressida, V. ii. 534; Merry 

 Wives of Windsor, V. v. 20, 21) is, of course, the sweet potato, 

 which had been introduced into Europe nearly eighty years 

 earlier. Gerard speaks of this sweet potato as " the common 

 potato," which is somewhat confusing to the modern reader. 



There is a delightful glimpse of a well-known London garden, 

 that of " Master Tuggie," who lived in Westminster and whose 

 hobby was gilliflowers. It is the more interesting to find this 

 passage in Gerard, for, as all lovers of Parkinson's Paradisus will 

 remember, some of the varieties of gilhflower were called after 

 their enthusiastic grower. Indeed, who can forget their en- 

 chanting names — " Master Tuggie's Princesse " and " Master 

 Tuggie his Rose gillowflower " ? Of gilhflowers, which vied 

 with roses in pride of place in Elizabethan gardens, Gerard 

 writes thus : — 



" Now I (holding it a thing not so fit for me to insist upon 

 these accidental differences of plants having specifique differ- 

 ences enough to treat of) refer such as are addicted to these 

 commendable and harmless delights to survey the late and oft- 

 mentioned Worke of my friend, Mr. John Parkinson, who 

 hath accurately and plentifully treated of these varieties. If 



