no The Botanical Renaissance [ch. 



time, but rather because he went out of his way to state 

 that it was confirmed by his own observations ! He gives 

 a figure to illustrate the origin of the Geese (Text-fig. 54), 

 which is not, however, original. 



Gerard relates how trees, actually bearing shells which 

 open and hatch out barnacle geese, occur in the "Orchades 1 ," 

 but he states that on this point he has no first-hand 

 knowledge. He proceeds, however, to remark, " But what 

 our eies have seene, and hands have touched, we shall 

 declare. There is a small Ilande in Lancashire called the 

 Pile of Foulders, wherein are found the broken peeces of 

 old and brused ships, some whereof have beene cast thither 

 by shipwracke, and also the trunks or bodies with the 

 branches of old and rotten trees, cast up there likewise : 

 wheron is found a certaine spume or froth, that in time 

 breedeth unto certaine shels, in shape like those of the 

 muskle, but sharper pointed, and of a whitish colour ; 

 wherein is conteined a thing in forme like a lace of silke 

 finely woven, as it were togither, of a whitish colour ; one 

 ende whereof is fastned unto the inside of the shell, even 

 as the fish of Oisters and Muskles are ; the other ende 

 is made fast unto the belly of a rude masse or lumpe, which 

 in time commeth to the shape and forme of a Bird : when 

 it is perfectly formed, the shel gapeth open, and the first 

 thing that appeereth is the foresaid lace or string ; next 

 come the legs of the Birde hanging out ; and as it groweth 

 greater, it openeth the shell by degrees, till at length it is 

 all come foorth, and hangeth onely by the bill ; in short 

 space after it commeth to full maturitie, and falleth into the 

 sea, where it gathereth feathers, and groweth to a foule, 

 bigger then a Mallard, and lesser than a Goose." 



The fable of the Goose Tree was rejected in the later 

 editions of Gerard's ' Herball,' published after the author's 

 death. It reappears, however, late in the seventeenth 

 century, in the ' Historia Naturalis' of John Jonston. The 

 legend is of respectable antiquity, being found in various 

 early chronicles. Sebastian Muenster, for example, in his 

 ' Cosmographia 1 ,' printed at Basle in 1545, refers to it 

 as recorded by previous writers, and figures a tree with 



1 Orkney Islands 



2 p. xlv. 



