GERARD'S HERBAL 115 



yellow pimpernel " growing in abundance between Highgate 

 and Hampstead " ; of sagittaria " in the Tower ditch at 

 London " ; of white saxifrage " in the great field by Islington 

 called the Mantles and in Saint George's fields behinde South- 

 warke " ; of the vervain mallow " on the ditch sides on the left 

 hand of the place of execution by London called Tyburn and in 

 the bushes as you go to Hackney " ; of marsh-mallows " very 

 plentifully in the marshes by Tilbury Docks " ; of the great 

 wild burnet " upon the side of a causey, which crosseth a field 

 whereof the one part is earable ground and the other part medow, 

 lying between Paddington and Lysson Green neere unto London 

 upon the highway " ; of hemlock dropwort " betweene the 

 plowed lands in the moist and wet furrowes of a field belonging 

 to Battersey by London, and amongst the osiers against York 

 House a little above the Horse-ferry against Lambeth " ; of 

 the small earth-nut " in a field adjoyning to Highgate on the 

 right side of the middle of the village and likewise in the next 

 field and by the way that leadeth to Paddington by London " ; 

 of chickweed spurry " in the sandy grounds in Tothill fields 

 nigh Westminster " ; of the pimpernel rose " in a pasture as 

 you goe from a village hard by London called Knightsbridge 

 unto Fulham, a village thereby " ; of dwarf elder " in untoiled 

 places plentifully in the lane at Kilburne Abbey by London " ; 

 of silver cinquefoil " upon brick and stone walls about London, 

 especially upon the bricke wall in Liver Lane " ; of water-ivy, 

 " which is very rare to find, nevertheless I found it once in a 

 ditch by Bermondsey house near to London and never else- 

 where." 



The glimpses he gives us of London gardens are few and one 

 longs for more. It is remarkable how few vegetables, or " pot- 

 herbs " as they called them, were grown in Elizabethan times. 

 Vegetables which figured in the old Roman menus were con- 

 sidered luxuries in this country even in the days of the later 

 Stuarts. The wild carrot is an indigenous plant in our islands, 

 but of the cultivated carrot we were ignorant till the Flemish 



