40 



HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TREES. 



PART I. 



to be at tliat time the most remarkable in England for the 

 number and variety of its productions. This garden appears by 

 the old maps to have been situated on the brow of the hill be- 

 tween what is now Ely Place, and what was formerly the Fleet 

 River, but what is now called Field Lane, the stream being 

 arched over. Gerard appears to have practised as a surgeon 

 and apothecary, supplying his prescriptions from his garden. 

 He was the author of several works, the principal of which are 

 his Catalogue and his Herbal. The first edition of the former is 

 dedicated to Lord Burleigh, and the second to Sir Walter 

 Raleigh, It enumerates nearly 1100 sorts of plants, of foreign 

 and domestic growth, all of which (as attested by L'Obel) were 

 to be found in his garden in Holborn. Gerard died about the 

 year 1607, highly respected by the college of physicians and by 

 all his contemporaries. 



SuBSECT. 3. Of the Foreign Trees and Shrubs introduced into Britain 

 in the Yjth Century. 



Tradescant appears to have come to England towards the 

 end of the preceding century. Wood says he was a Dutchman ; 

 that he was in the service of Lord Treasurer Sahsbury, Lord 

 Wootton, and the Duke of Buckingham ; and that, about 1629, 

 he obtained the title of gardener to Charles L He is said to 

 have travelled over a great part of Europe, and to have gone into 

 Barbary, Greece, Egypt, and other Eastei-n countries, in (]uest 

 of plants and natural curiosities. He had a garden at Lambeth, 

 and a museum there ; in the former of which he cultivated many 

 plants, and, as appears by a Catalogue published by his son, in 

 1656, some trees and shrubs. Tradescant's garden and mu- 

 seum were probably not commenced till after he had retired 

 from the service of private noblemen, and entered into that of 

 the king, which would give its origin about 1630. Trades- 

 cant's son travelled in Virginia, and introduced various new 

 plants from that country. Tradescant, senior, died about 1652. 

 Tradescant's garden was visited, in 1*749, by Dr. Mitchell 

 and Dr. (afterwards Sir) William Watson, JF.R.S. ; but at that 

 distant period they found very few trees. Among these, how- 

 ever, were Schubertza disticha, Robinm Pseud-y^cacia; i?-hamnus 

 catharticus, about 20 ft. high, and nearly afoot in diameter; an 

 v^ristolochia, and several mulberry trees. [Phil. Trans. Abr., 

 X. 740.) These were but a few of the species of trees cultivated 

 by Tradescant ; as appears by the Catalogue published by 

 his son, and by the list at the end of this section. 



From a memorandum by Dr. Gray, in his copy of the Horii 

 JRcgii Hampt07iiensis, &c., now in the British Museum, we learn 

 that many of the plants enumerated in that catalogue were 



