IV] Bock's Herbal 



55 



illness, gave him shelter and support in his own castle. 

 He was eventually able to return to Hornbach, where he 

 filled the office of preacher until his death in 1554. 



Bock's great work is the ' New Kreutterbuch,' a herbal 

 which first appeared in 1539, printed at Strasburg by 

 Wendel Rihel. In subsequent editions the title was 

 abbreviated to ' Kreuter Buch." The first edition was 

 without illustrations, but a second, containing many wood- 

 cuts, followed in 1546. The majority of the figures are 

 said to have been copied on a reduced scale from those in 

 Fuchs' magnificent herbal, which appeared in 1 542, between 

 the first and second editions of Bock's work. Fuchs' 

 figures must have been used with great discretion, for the 

 plagiarism is often not obvious (see Text-figs. 27, 90, 91). 

 A considerable number of the figures are new, being 

 drawn and engraved by David Kandel, whose initials 

 appear on the portrait of Bock, reproduced in Text-fig. 26. 

 The wood-cuts of trees in the third part of the book are 

 particularly noticeable (see Text-figs. 28 and 92) and are 

 often made more interesting by the introduction of figures 

 of men and animals. 



Bock's chief claim to remembrance, however, does not 

 lie in his figures, but in his descriptions, which were a 

 great advance on those previously published. He was 

 careful also to note the mode of occurrence and localities 

 of the plants mentioned, and in this feature his work 

 showed some approach to a flora in the modern sense of 

 the word. Bock seems to have been a keen collector, 

 although hampered by ill-health, and a great point in his 

 favour is that he described only those plants which had 

 come under his own personal observation. The Royal 

 Fern (Osmunda) was traditionally supposed to bear seed 

 upon St John's Eve, though ferns were generally believed 

 at that time to have no organs of fructification. To test 

 this statement, Bock four times spent the night in the 

 forest. He found "small black seed like poppy seed," in 

 spite of the fact that he "used no charm, incantation or 

 magic character," but went upon his search without super- 

 stition. 



Bock's freedom from the credulity which permeated the 

 work of so many of the early botanists is one of his most 



