12 
€arlg botanical Mxitm. 
in Florida. Clufius's figure of our well-known northern 
S. pzirptirea — of which he gives, however, only the 
leaves and bafe of the ftem {Clus. Hift. PL, cit. Gerard a 
Johnfon) — was derived from a fpecimen furnifhed to him 
by one Mr. Claude Gonier, apothecary at Paris, who him- 
felf had it from Lif bon ; whither we may fuppofe it was 
carried by fome fifherman from the Newfoundland coaft. 
The evening primrofe (CEnothera biennis) was known in 
Europe, according to Linnaeus, as early as 1614. Polygo- 
num fagittatum and arifolhim (tear-thumb) were figured 
by De Laet, probably from New- York fpecimens, in his 
" Novus Orbis," 1633. Johnfon's edition of Gerard's 
" Herbal " (1636) — which was poffibly our author's manu- 
al in the ftudy of New-England plants — contains fome 
dozen North-American fpecies, furnifhed often from the 
garden of Mr. John Tradefcant, who had other plants from 
"Virginia" befide the elegant one which bears his name; 
and John Parkinfon — whofe " Theatrum Botanicum " 
(1640) is declared by Tournefort to embrace a larger 
number of fpecies than any work which had gone before 
it — defcribes, efpecially from Cornuti, a ftill larger num- 
ber. But the firft treatife efpecially concerned with 
North-American plants was that of the French author juft 
mentioned; which, on feveral accounts, deferves particu- 
lar attention. 
John Robin — " fecond to none," fays Tournefort, " in 
the knowledge and cultivation of plants " — was placed 
in charge of the Royal Botanical Garden at Paris, about 
the year 1570; and Vefpafian Robin, "a moft diligent 
