188 THE OLD ENGLISH HERBALS 



part due to the exquisite frailty and short-lived beauty of the 

 flowers of earth and the stupendous majesty of the flowers in 

 the heavens, those myriad worlds in whose existence a thousand 

 years is but as a passing dream. 



grace sljall wr tnburr* 



(Inscription at the end of " The vertuose boke Of Dystyllacyon of the waters of all maner oj 

 Herbes" 1527.) 



