EARLY GARDEN LITERATURE 6i 



besides " medlars, quinces, Warden pears, peaches, and 

 pears of St. Regula," he adds such fruits as oranges, lemons, 

 pomegranates, myrrh, and spices, and other things equally 

 incredible. 



Another classical writer of uncertain date was Macer. An 

 author of that name was contemporary with Virgil, but the 

 writer of the Herbal, which was translated into many languages, 

 must have Hved at some later date, as he quotes Galen. It is 

 strictly a herbal treating of the medicinal uses of herbs and 

 spices. The old translations are valuable, as giving the English 

 equivalents of the Latin names, and Macer's was such a 

 common handbook that anyone planting a herb garden would 

 try to obtain as many of the plants mentioned by him as 

 could be found in England at that period. The name of the 

 first translator of Macer is lost in obscurity, but there is a 

 manuscript translation, dated 1373, by John Lelamour, school- 

 master of Hertford,^ and several other early translations exist, 

 although the book was not printed until about 1530. One of 

 them is curious, from the additions made by the translator 

 or transcriber of some plants known to him, and not men- 

 tioned by Macer. ^ He subjoins also some further medical 

 recipes, which indicate more of the usual plants of a herb 

 garden. The following example is the recipe given for curing 

 the pestilence : — " Do take and medele, pimpernoU, sauge, 

 auance, seint mary gouldes, tansey, sorell', and columbyne, 

 stampe these VH erbes and drink the ioiuse of hem in ole ale 

 or clene water and it wole distroie the pestilence be it never 

 so felle." 



Further information about gardens is to be gained from 

 other medical works. There is an Enghsh fourteenth-century 

 medical poem preserved in MS. in the Royal Library, Stock- 

 holm, which contains some graphic descriptions of flowers. 

 With regard to the good qualities of rosemary, the author says : 

 " Rosmarine is bothen erbe & tre, hot and drie of kende 

 hys lewys am euermore grene & neuer more falty as techy 

 bokes of fysik and ek bokys of skole of sallerne wrot to ye 

 countess of hemaunde and sche sente ye copy to hyre dowter 



^ Sloane, No. 5, Sec. 3. 



^ MS. circa 1440, formerly in the Amherst Library at DidUngton. 



