290 1)e gJarticn's -Ston;. 



the " Great Herball," or " The History of Plants," 

 nearly three centuries ago ? Almost all of Ge- 

 rarde's, as also most of Culpepper's icons of 

 plants, are models of their kind, bringing the 

 plant before one, not only truthfully, but pictur- 

 esquely. You see its form and color, savor its 

 fragrance, become acquainted with its virtues 

 you fairly see the plant grow and the flowers 

 expand. The page was ampler in the days of 

 the colon and the tall folio, the margin for em- 

 broidery wider, and author and reader were less 

 hurried. To-day, after the lapse of centuries, 

 the descriptions stand out with the vividness of 

 an old copper-plate proof. The reader who has 

 had the patience to follow me, and who does not 

 know him, will be interested in a typical descrip- 

 tion by Gerarde : " The Indian Sun or the golden 

 floure of Peru is a plant of such stature and tal- 

 nesse that in one Sommer being sowne of a 

 seede in Aprill, it hath risen up to the height of 

 fourteen foot in my garden, where one floure 

 was in weight three pound and two ounces, and 

 crosse overthwart the floure by measure sixteen 

 inches broad. The stalkes are upright and 

 straight, of the bignesse of a strong mans arme, 

 beset with large leaves even to the top, like unto 

 the great Clot Bur: at the top of the stalke 

 cometh forth for the most part one floure, yet 



