HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 



L'Obel, a pupil of Eondelet, after some years of travel in 

 tlie south of Europe, settled ia England, where he published 

 his Adversaria and other works, during his long abode of nearly 

 fifty years. In the Adversaria, the arrangement of plants was 

 L'Obel's own, and is a rough attempt at a natural grouping ; 

 he begins with the grasses and grass-like plants. 



John Gerard followed the method of L'Obel, using the text 

 of Dodoens and the woodcuts of Tabernaemontanus in his 

 Serhall, the issue of which was preceded by the catalogue of 

 his garden. The Herball became so generally esteemed by his 

 countrymen, that Thomas Johnson, his subsequent editor, con- 

 tented himself by expunging the gross errors, and adding 

 fresh plants without changing the arrangement. In this way 

 Gerard's Herball is still held in estimation, probably as much 

 for his quaint language as for any other reason ; I have else- 

 where given an ample account of him. 



Aldrovandus devoted one of his folios to the vegetable 

 kingdom. He died in 1605, ruined by the cost of the extensive 

 collections accumulated for his comprehensive works, and 

 whilst only four of his volumes had passed through the press. 



Many works on the Materia medica of the East and "West 

 Indies were about this time put forth, and translations into 

 the various languages of Europe soon spread a knowledge of 

 some of the products of the newly-discovered countries, which 

 were being opened up by the enterprise of the chief maritime 

 nations, the Spanish, Portuguese, and English, and in lesser 

 degree the Dutch. Amongst these may be enumerated those 

 of Garcia ab Horto as he is called in the Latin versions of 

 his book, Acosta, and Monarda. 



Johann Bauhin is best known by his Historia plantarum, 

 issued after his death, under the care of Cherler and Chabraeus. 

 The woodcuts are rough, although sometimes very charac- 

 teristic, and the paper and print detestable, yet the accuracy 

 and clearness of the author in his text caused Ray and others 

 to attach great importance to " J. B. Hist." 



