APPENDIX XIII. 



HISTORICAL NOTES. 



The most universal scholar of his time ; he was born at Durham 

 about 671, and bred under St. John of Beverley. He was a man 

 of great virtue, and remarkable for a most sweet and engaging dis- 

 position. He died in 734, and lies buried at Durham. His works 

 make eight volumes folio, of which the most valuable and best 

 known is his " Ecclesiastical History." H. 



b Matthias de Lobcl, or L'Obel, an eminent physician and 

 botanist of the sixteenth century, was a native of Lisle, in Flanders. 

 He was a disciple of Rondeletius ; and being invited to London by 

 King James I., published there his " Historia Plantarum," and died 

 in the year 1616. The work is entitled "Plantarum sen Stirpium 

 Historia," and was first published at Antwerp in 1576, and repub- 

 lished at London in 1605. He was author likewise of two other 

 works, the former of which has for its title " Balsami, Opobalsami, 

 Carpobalsami, et Xylobalsami, cum suo cortice explanatio " (Lond., 

 1598); and the latter, "Stirpium Illustrationes" (Lond., 1655). H. 



John Gerard was one of the first of our English botanists, was 

 by profession a surgeon, and published, in 1597, an "Herbal" in a 

 large folio, dedicated to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh; and, two 

 years after, " A Catalogue of Plants, Herbs, &c.," to the number 

 of eleven hundred, raised and naturalized by himself in a large 

 garden near his house in Holborn. The latter is dedicated to Sir 

 Walter Raleigh. H. 



