THE LITERATURE OF BOTANY. 131 



particulars of that memorable day. He narrates who the 

 excursionists were, how they walked to a country place 

 known as Kentish Town, and had notes enough for three 

 lists of plants, being seventy-two. In 1633, as before 

 mentioned, Johnson published his great achievement, a new 

 edition of Gerarde's " Herbal," thirty-six years after the 

 appearance of the original edition. Johnson was as good 

 a soldier as he was a botanist, and distinguished himself 

 greatly in the Civil Wars, becoming Lieut. -Colonel to Sir 

 Marmaduke Rawdon. Unluckily for botany, at the siege 

 of Basing House he received a shot in the shoulder, whereby 

 contracting a fever he died a fortnight after. Truly, as 

 his biographer observes, " it would have been well if he 

 had stuck to plant-collecting and shunned fighting." He 

 was much regretted, being, as it is declared, " no less eminent 

 in the garrison for his conduct as a soldier than famous 

 through the kingdom for his excellency as an herbalist and 

 physician." 



John Parkinson, " the King's Herbalist," was a contem- 

 porary of Johnson, and an older man than the latter. He 

 also was an apothecary, and had a garden at Long Acre. 

 His book is of much note and is now rare. It is copiously 

 illustrated, dedicated to King Charles, and entitled "Theatrum 

 Botanicum, the Theatre of Plants, by John Parkinson, 

 Apothecary, of London, and King's Herbalist." It is 

 divided into seventeen parts or tribes. I may not here 

 go into detail, but it is a very interesting book. 



Dr. Merritt, who was born in 1614, and was one of the 

 earliest members of the Royal Society, founded in 1663, 

 was an industrious botanist. 



Dr. Leonard Plukenel, Queen's Botanist, is recorded to 



