Cowley. 283 
in the fame age, might not want their bo- 
tanical laureats, Cowley in the one, and 
Rapin in the other, arofe to celebrate thi§ 
theme. 
Cowley, after having found reafons for 
ftudying phylic, confidering botany," as 
we are told by his late eminent biographer, 
as neceffary to a phyfician, retired into 
*^ Kenty to gather plants/' 
Here, he wrote, before the Reftorationj, 
his Two firft Books on Plants 3" although 
they were not publifhed till the year i662^ 
The remaining four were added in the edi- 
tion of 1668 ; and the whole were repub- 
]i(hed, with other poems, in 1678, 8*. 
PP- 343- 
In the Jirjl book, he celebrates the powers 
of various medicinal herbs, more efpecially 
of thofe which gave ampler fcope to his 
mufe, from antient renown of their virtue, 
and were yet in frequent ufe, and high 
efteem. Such were betony, wormwood, \va- 
-ter lily, milfeltoe, and various others. 
In the fecond, he invokes the goddeffes 
Luna, LucinUy Jana, and Mefia ; and fmgs 
the praifes of fimples appropriated to the 
2 difeafes 
