86 THE OLD ENGLISH HERBALS 



to this last he reminds the queen of a conversation he had 

 had with her in Latin eighteen years before, at the Duke of 

 Somerset's house, when he was physician to that nobleman. It 

 is in this preface also that he criticises the foreign herbalists; 

 though he has learnt much from them, they had much to learn 

 from him, " as their second editions maye testifye." He claims 

 that in the first part of his herbal he taught " the truth of 

 certeyne plants which these above-named writers (Matthiolus, 

 Fuchsius, Tragus and Dodoneus) either knew not at al or ellis 

 erred in them greatlye. . . . And because I would not be lyke 

 unto a cryer yt cryeth a loste horse in the marketh, and telleth 

 all the markes and tokens that he hath, and yet never sawe the 

 horse, nether coulde knowe the horse if he sawe him : I wente 

 into Italye and into diverse partes of Germany, to knowe and 

 se the herbes my selfe." 



The book owes much of its charm to its vivid descriptions 

 of the plants, and the fascinating and unexpected details he 

 gives us about them. The comparison of dodder, for instance, 

 to " a great red harpe strynge," is a happy touch which it is 

 impossible to forget. " Doder groweth out of herbes and small 

 bushes as miscelto groweth out of trees. Doder is lyke a great 

 red harpe strynge and it wyndeth about herbes foldyng mych 

 about them and hath floures and knoppes one from an other a 

 good space. . . . The herbes that I have marked doder to 

 growe most in are flax and tares." 



These accurate observations and careful descriptions are 

 characteristic of the writer, and recall similar touches in the 

 Saxon herbals. For example, he records that the stamens of 

 the Madonna lily have a different smell from the flower itself, 

 and that the berries of the bay tree are almost, but not quite, 

 round. There is only space to quote the following : 



' The lily hath a long stalk and seldom more than one, 

 howbeit it hath somtyme II. It is II or III cubites hyghe. It 

 hath long leves and somthyng of the fashion of the great 

 satyrion. The flour is excedyng white and it hath the forme or 



