ELIZABETHAN GARDEN LITERATURE 147 



by Johnson in 1633, in the Preface to the Reader this fact 

 is pointed out, and, moreover, Johnson maintains that the 

 translation made by Dr. Priest, which Gerard states to have 

 perished, really came into Gerard's hands, and was largely 

 used by him, Gerard himself not being sufficiently proficient 

 in his knowledge of Latin. " I cannot," wrote Johnson, 

 " commend my author for endeavouring to hide this thing 

 from us." L'Obel and Garret both helped to amend some 

 mistakes in the Latin in the Herbal, while it was going through 

 the press. L'Obel himself was the author of a work on plants 

 — Stirpium Adversaria (1570) . In this he was assisted by Peter 

 Pena, whose acquaintance he had made while studying at 

 Montpelier. Mathias de Lobel, or l'Obel, was born at Lille in 

 1538, and travelled about Europe, and practised medicine both 

 in Antwerp and Delft before he came to England. For many 

 years he took charge of the garden belonging to Lord Zouche 

 in Hackney, and was made " Botanist to the King " (James I.). 

 The familiar " Lobelia " was so named in his honour by Plumier. 

 The first rudiments of a scientific classification are to be found 

 in his works, which are therefore considered superior to those 

 of Dodoens, who never attempted anything of the kind. He 

 had studied Mattioli, and frequently refers to him ; but his 

 work, although esteemed by the learned, being in Latin, and 

 never translated, could not become popular, as did the work 

 of his contemporary, Gerard, which was written in English. 

 Gerard's Herbal has always maintained a conspicuous position 

 in the literature of flowers, and the second issue, so ably edited 

 by Thomas Johnson, tended greatly to increase the popularity 

 and the value of the work. 



John Gerard, or Gerarde, was born in 1545 at Nantwich, in 

 Cheshire, and died in 1607. He was not only a physician, and 

 learned " in simples," but also a practical gardener, and culti- 

 vated a physic-garden of his own at Holborn, then a suburb of 

 London, where he lived. The first work he published was a 

 catalogue of the plants in his garden, 1 which contained nearly 



1 There is a unique copy of this work in the British Museum, which 

 has been reprinted and edited by D. Jackson. It was printed again in 

 1598, and is occasionally found bound up with the edition of his Herbal 

 of the same year. 



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