ELIZABETHAN GARDEN LITERATURE 151 
exact date of his death is uncertain, but it occurred soon after 
the publication of his work, entitled Theatrum Botanicum , in 
1640. This book has more to do with botany than with 
gardening, and although he describes even more plants than 
are to be found in Gerard, there is no special improvement in 
classification, the arrangement being chiefly according to their 
medical qualities. In the dedication of this Herbal to Charles I. 
Parkinson calls it his “ Man-like Worke,” and says the Para - 
disus had been his “ Feminine ” one, and therefore presented 
to the Queen. The French botanists, Jean and Gaspard 
Bauhin, had brought out their works since the publication of 
Gerard’s Herbal , and Parkinson made use of these, as well as 
of those of L’Obel. The blocks for Parkinson’s illustrations 
were cut in England. 1 Those for Gerard and Johnson came 
from abroad, as did also the greater part of Turner’s. 
The busiest workers and collectors of foreign plants in the 
time of James I. and Charles I. were the three generations of 
John Tradescants. The grandfather, a Dutchman, came to 
England probably early in the reign of James I. The next John, 
“ the father,” was gardener to the first Lord Salisbury, the 
Lord Treasurer ; to Lord Wolton ; to the Duke of Buckingham, 
and in 1629 was made gardener to Charles I. They all 
travelled about Europe, the father in Barb ary also, and the 
grandson made a voyage to Virginia. They collected curiosities 
during their travels, and formed a museum, called “ Tra- 
descant’s Ark,” a catalogue of which was published in 1656, 
Museum Tradescanteanum. When the last Tradescant died in 
1662, he left the museum to Mr. Ashmole, who bequeathed 
it to the University of Oxford. Besides the museum, at their 
house in Lambeth they had a good garden, where they culti¬ 
vated many of the plants they imported. This was visited 
by the King and Queen, and was the resort of the learned of 
all classes. The remains of this garden existed in 1749, at 
which date Sir William Watson wrote a paper describing it 
for the Royal Society. 2 He noticed two very large arbutus- 
trees, which had not suffered from the severe cold of 1729 and 
1 For a history of these woodcuts, see Pulteney's Sketches of the 
Progress of Botany, 1790, chap. xii. 
2 Phil. Trans., vol. xlvi., p. 160, 
