IV] The Herbal in England 1 13 



his ' Phytobasanos ' (1592) flatly denies the truth of the 

 legend. 



The importance of Gerard's ' Herball ' in the history of 

 botany is chiefly due to an improved edition, brought out 

 by Thomas Johnson in 1633, thirty-six years after the 

 work was originally published. Johnson was an apothecary 

 in London, and cultivated a physic garden on Snow Hill. 

 His first botanical work was a short account of the plants 

 collected by members of the Apothecaries' Company on an 

 excursion in Kent. This is of interest as being the earliest 

 memoir of the kind published in England. Later on, 

 descriptions of botanical tours in the west of England, and 

 in Wales, appeared from his pen. But it is as the editor 

 of Gerard that he is chiefly remembered. He greatly en- 

 larged the ' Herball,' and illustrated it with Plantin's wood- 

 cuts. His edition contained an account of no less than 

 2850 plants. Johnson also corrected numerous errors, and 

 the whole work, transformed by him, rose to a much higher 

 grade of value. It was reprinted, without alteration, in 

 1636. 



When the Civil Wars broke out, Johnson, who is said 

 to have been a man of great personal courage, joined the 

 Royalists. He took an active part in the defence of Basing 

 House, and received a shot wound during the siege, from 

 which he died. 



John Parkinson (1567 — 1650) may be regarded as the 

 last British herbalist, of the period we are considering, 

 whose work was of any great interest from the botanical 

 point of view. His portrait is shown in Plate XIH. Like 

 Gerard and Johnson, he cultivated a famous garden in 

 London. In these days of bricks and mortar, it is hard 

 to realise that gardens of such importance flourished in 

 Holborn, Snow Hill, and Long Acre respectively. Another 

 important London garden of the period was that at 

 Lambeth, belonging to John Tradescant, gardener to 

 Charles I. 



Parkinson became apothecary to James I and botanist 

 to Charles I. The earlier of the two books, by which he 

 is remembered, was rather of the nature of a gardening 

 work than of a herbal. It appeared in 1629 under the 

 title, ' Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris. A Garden 



A. 8 



