VOL. LXIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TKANSAC TIONS. !1 383 



the clock, for the year 177 !• Next, observations on the barometer and ther- 

 mometer, not necessary to be reprinted. The next observation is a solar eclipse, 

 Oct. 25, 1772> the end observed at 20'' SS"" 34' apparent time. Then several 

 occultations of stars by the moon. Then follow observations of the eclipses and 

 occultations of Jupiter's satellites, also of his belts. 



XII. On the Early Cultivation of Botany in England; and some Particulars of 

 John Tradescant, a Great Promoter of that Science, as teell as of Natural His- 

 tory, in the last Century, and Gardener to King Charles I. By Dr. DucareU 

 F.R.S., F.S.A. p. 79. 



The sciences we know are subject to revolutions. But is it not a very extra- 

 ordinary one that botany, so useful to mankind, and so well known to the 

 ancients, should for some ages abandon Europe, and remain almost unknown 

 there till the l6th century; when it is supposed to have suddenly revived; and 

 has since, by the industry of the moderns, been brought to the highest per- 

 fection ? The truth however is, that botany returned into England long before 

 this aera. It was brought back here by the Saxons ; since whose time, it has 

 always flourished, more or less, in this kingdom. Dr. D. founds his opinion on 

 the authority of the 4 following Saxon manuscripts. 



Two in the Bodleian Library, viz. 



N° 4125. Herbarium Saxonicum. 



5l6"y. Liber medic'uialis MS. continens virtutes herbarum Saxonic^. 



And two others in the Harleian Library, viz. 



N° 5066. entitled. Herbarium Saxonice. 



585. Tractatus qui ab Anglo-Saxonibus dicebatur LIB6R 008DIEINXLIb : scil. L. Apuleii 

 Madaurencis Libri de Virtutibus Herbarum, Versio Anglo-Saxonica. 



This Lucius Apuleius of Medaura was a famous Platonic philosopher, who 

 flourished about a. d. 200. From this time he has met with no ms. concerning 

 botany, till the 13th century, when Bishop Tanner mentions three mss. on this 

 subject, written by Gilebertus Legleus, sive Anglicus, a physician, who flourished 

 in the year 1210, entitled, 



1. De Virtutibus Herbarum, ms. Bodl. Digb. 75. 2. Gilbeiti Liber de Viribus et Medicinis 

 Herbarum Arborum, et Specierum, ms. olim Monast. Sion. 3. De Re Herbaria, lib. i. 



The bishop likewise mentions one John Arden, a famous surgeon, who lived 

 at Newark in Nottinghamshire from 1349 to 1370, as the author of a ms. (now 

 extant in Sir Hans Sloane's library), entitled, Volumen Miscellaneorum de Re 

 Herbaria, Physica, et Chirurgica. 



In the Ashraolean library are the following mss. viz. 



(N° 7704.) entitled, A Treatise of Chirurgery, with an Herbal, &c. in Old English, 4to, 1438. 

 And another, N° (7709.) called, an Herbary, &c. written alphabetically, according to the Latin 

 names, in 1443. And (N° 7537.) entitled, A Book of Plants and Animals, delineated in their na- 

 tural colours on vellum. Old English, a. d. 1504. 



