CHAP. II. 



BRITISH ISLANDS. 



39 



sixteen were introduced. Among these were the sweet bay, the 

 almond, the apricot, the pomegranate, the mulberry, the pla- 

 tanus, the stone pine, the common spruce fir, the cypress, and 

 the savin juniper. The names of the introducers, or first cul- 

 tivators, are almost entirely unknown, and, indeed, it is probable 

 that most of the plants named at this early period had been in 

 the country many years previously; some of them, as the rose- 

 mary, the thyme, the southernwood, the sweet bay, the apricot, 

 &c=, possibly from the time of the Romans ; or, at all events, 

 from the period of the establishment of religious houses in 

 England. Among these plants, there are only two from ultra- 

 European countries : the almond, from Barbary ; and the jas- 

 mine, from the East Indies. 



From 1551' to 1596, during the reign of Mary and the 

 greater part of that of Elizabeth, twenty-four plants were first 

 recorded, among which were the peach, the nectarine, and the 

 walnut, from Persia ; and the damask rose, the quince, and the 

 Quercus 7^1ex. The names of the introducers are not known, 

 with few exceptions ; such as that of Hugh Morgan, apothecary 

 to Queen Elizabeth ; Gray, a London apothecary, mentioned by 

 L'Obel; L'Obel, a Fleming, who was afterwards botanist to 

 James L; and Dr. Grindal, who was bishop of London, and after- 

 wards archbishop of York and Canterbury, during the greater 

 part of the reign of Elizabeth. From 1596 to the end of the 

 century, forty-six different species were introduced, and upwards 

 of thirty of these were first recorded by Gerard. Among these 

 were, the English and Scotch laburnums, the althaea frutex, the 

 Judas tree; the musk, the yellow and the hundred-leaved roses; 

 the cotoneaster, Christ's thorn, Cornus mas, the common syringa, 

 the laurustinus, the lilac, and the phillyrea. Most of these are 

 from the continent and south of Europe ; and there are, in this 

 period, also, the arbor vitae and the yucca, from North America. 



Thus, the total number of foreign woody plants which are 

 known to have been cultivated in Britain during the 16th cen- 

 tury is only eighty-four, exclusive of two varieties of the lau- 

 rustinus, and nine of the phillyrea. 



It is impossible, at this distance of time, to ascertain the names 

 of all the persons to whom we are indebted for the introduction 

 of these plants ; but it is certain that the merit of the first 

 cultivation of the greater part of them belongs decidedly to 

 Gerard. 



John Gerard, Pulteney informs us, was born at Nantwich in 

 Cheshire, in 1545, educated as a surgeon, and patronised in 

 London by Lord Burleigh, who had at that time the best col- 

 lection of plants in the kingdom. Gerard superintended this 

 nobleman's garden, which was in the Strand ; Gerard himself 

 living in Holborn, where he had a physic garden, considered 



