GERARD'S HERBAL 105 



Cole, a London merchant, " a lover of plants and very skilful 

 in the knowledge of them," and James Garret, a London apothe- 

 cary and a tulip enthusiast, who " every season bringeth forth 

 new plants of sundry colours not before seen, all of which to 

 describe particularly were to roll Sisiphus's stone or number the 

 sands." Jean Robin, the keeper of the royal gardens in Paris, 

 sent him many rarities. For instance, of barrenwort (Epimedium 

 alpinum) he writes : " This was sent to me from the French 

 King's herbalist Robinus dwellying in Paris at the syne of the 

 blacke heade in the street called Du bout du Monde, in English 

 the end of the world." In view of Sir Walter Raleigh's well- 

 known enthusiasm for collecting rare plants, it is at least possible 

 that he may have been a donor to Gerard's garden. 



Even the most cursory reading of the book suggests how much 

 we lose by the lack of the old simple belief in the efficacy of 

 herbs to cure not only physical ills, but also those of the mind and 

 even of the heart. This belief was shared by the greatest 

 civilisations of antiquity, and it is only we poor moderns who 

 ignore the fact that " very wonderful effects may be wrought by 

 the Vertues, which are enveloped within the compasse of the 

 Green Mantles wherewith many Plants are adorned." 1 Doctors 

 are cautious folk nowadays, but it is wonderful to think of a 

 time when the world was so young that people were brave and 

 hopeful enough to imagine that mere humans could alleviate, 

 even cure, the sorrows of others. If ever anything so closely 

 approaching the miraculous is attempted again one feels very 

 sure that we shall turn, as the wise men of the oldest civilisa- 

 tions did, to God's most beautiful creations to accomplish the 

 miracle. In common with the majority of the old herbalists, 

 Gerard had a faith in herbs which was simple and unquestioning. 

 Sweet marjoram, he tells us, is for those " who are given to 

 over-much sighing." Again, " The smell of Basil is good for the 

 heart ... it taketh away sorrowfulness, which commeth of 

 melancholy and maketh a man merry and glad." " Bawme 

 1 W. Coles, The Art of Simpling. 



