70 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES ON THE EARLY BOTANISTS 



Latin, nor English name, even amongst the Physicians, of any 

 herb or tree, such was the ignorance in simples at that time." 

 The herbal to which he refers is entitled " Libellus de re 

 herbaria novus," and was published in London in 1538. It 

 is a small quarto of 20 pages, and is a first attempt to match 

 the names under which plants are known in English, with 

 their Greek and Latin equivalents. It is written in Latin, 

 and makes mention of 144 classical names arranged in alpha- 

 betical order. The book is very rare, and was reprinted in 

 facsimile in 1877 by Mr. B. Daydon Jackson, Senior Secretary 

 of the Linnean Society, from a copy in the library of the 

 British Museum, accompanied by an excellent biographical 

 sketch, and a list of the plants under their present Latin 

 names. At Cambridge Turner was thrown into association 

 with Ridley and Latimer, and embraced the doctrines and 

 practises of the Reformers with great ardour. He became a 

 travelling preacher and a writer of controversial religious 

 pamphlets. It ended in his being imprisoned and afterwards 

 banished, and in the last year of the reign of Henry the 

 Eighth his writings were prohibited, and ordered to be 

 destroyed. He fled to Italy, where he studied botany under 

 Ghinus at Bologna, and took the degree of Doctor of Medicine. 

 After visiting Basle, where the great herbal of Fuchsius (896 

 pages, 512 woodcuts) was published in 1542, and Cologne, 

 where he in common with the other Protestant refugees was 

 assisted with money from Bishop Ridley, he returned to 

 England shortly after the accession of Edward the Sixth, 

 Whilst waiting for clerical preferment he became physician to 

 the Protector Somerset. In 1548 he issued his second 

 botanical book, which is written in English, and is entitled, 

 " The Names of Herbes, in Greke, Latin, English, Duche, 

 and Frenche, with the commune names that Herbaries and 

 Apothecaries use." This covers the same ground as the 

 Libellus, but is greatly extended, and contains more than 400 

 classical headings to the paragraphs. Sometimes he refers to 

 local Northumbrian names as " Lucken gollande " for Caltha 

 J)alustris, " Spere grass " for Carex, " Newe Chappel fioure " 



