November  13,  1902. 
JOURNAL  CF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
447 
Old-time  Gardening. 
( Continued  from  page  239.) 
Gerarde  and  “  The  Herball.” 
Not  by  any  means  is  a  great  deal  known  of  Gerard. 
He  was  born  at  Nantwich,  in  Cheshire,  in  1545,  and  died 
in  London  in  1611-1612,  where  he  was  buried  on  Febru¬ 
ary  18'  of  that  year.  Of  his  parentage  nothing  is  known, 
nor,  though  he  was  married,  has  any  trace  of  his  having 
left  a  family  been  discovered.  He  himself  admits  that 
his  education  was  deficient,  yet  he  attained  to  a  very 
high  position  among  his  fellows,  mainly,  no  doubt,  on 
account  of  a  plodding  disposition,  and  a  certain  amount 
of  “  push,”  that  led  him  on  to  undertakings  that  better 
qualified  men  allowed  to  pass.  It  is  not  at  all  unlikely 
that  his  qualifications  as  a  surgeon  were  less  conspicuous 
than  his  knowledge  of  herbs,  which  contemporaries  admit 
was  very  great. 
He  was,  however,  apt  to  be  imposed  upon,  even  in 
the  matter  of  plants,  and  more  than  one  instance  occurs 
in  his  “  Herball  ”  of,  to  say  the  least,  a  lack  of  acuteness 
and  a  facility  to  admit  of  deception  that  detracts  some¬ 
what  from  his  character.  I  should  imagine  that  his 
greatest  forte  would  be  as  a  gardener.  We  find  him  in 
1577  established  as  gardener  to  Lord  Burleigh,  and  he 
also  possessed  a  garden  of  his  own,  which  he  calls  a 
“little  plot.”  In  his  own  words,  he  claimed  to  “have 
added  from  forreine  places  all  the  varietie  of  herbes  and 
floures  that  I  might  any  way  obtaine.”  Moreover,  he 
challenged  inspection  of  these  gardens  to  afford  a  proof 
of  his  skill  as  a  horticulturist. 
In  1604  he  rented  two  acres  of  ground  from  Queen 
Anne,  for  which  he  was  to  pay  Id.  quarterly,  and  in  the 
lease  he  is  termed  “Surgeon  and  Herbalist  to  the  King;” 
but  he  held  this  garden  only  a  year.  However,  the  above 
affords  an  indication  as  to  how  he  had  prospered.  Another 
means  of  forming  an  opinion  as  to  his  position  may  be 
derived  from  the  people  he  knew  and  corresponded  with. 
For  example,  he  is  found  in  the  company  of  the  Lord 
Mayor,  “  looking  for  springs.”  Lord  Edward  Zouch,  Lete,  a 
leading  London  merchant,  Robin  of  Paris,  Sir  F.  Crispe, 
and  Lord  Wotton  are  a  fewr  among  many  of  the  people  with 
whom  he  claimed  an  acquaintance. 
Gerarde’s  first  literary  undertaking  was  a  catalogue 
of  the  trees,  shrubs,  and  plants  cultivated  in  his  garden. 
These  were  1,039  in  number.  The  British  Museum  holds 
this,  the  earliest  “  hortus,”  but  in  1876  Mr.  Jackson  issued 
100  copies,  with  many  notes  and  English  names  of  the 
plants.  This  work,  too,  is  now  scarce.  Gerarde’s  Cata¬ 
logue  appeared  first  in  1596,  and  again  in  1599.  Mean¬ 
while,  in  1597,  “  The  Herball,  or  Historie  of  Plants  ”  was 
issued  from  the  press.  This  is  admittedly  the  work  of  a 
Dr.  Priest,  who  translated  into  English  the  Pemptades 
of  Dodoens.  After  the  death  of  Priest  the  manuscript 
fell  into  the  hands  of  Gerarde,  who  made  use  of  it  without, 
however,  stating  to  whom  he  was  indebted,  a  practice  not 
uncommon  in  those  days.  Material  from  other  authors 
was  incorporated,  and  not  a  little  was  added  by  Gerarde 
himself.  If  not  the  most  trustworthy,  it  includes,  at 
least,  the  most  interesting  portions  of  the  work,  the  gar¬ 
rulous  old  fellow  chatting  away  con  amore  as  if  all  his 
readers  were  his  most  intimate  friends.  Local  references 
are  of  much  interest,  and  villages,  long  ago  absorbed  into 
the  great  metropolis,  afforded  in  their  several  vicinities 
happy  hunting  grounds  to  the  ardent  botanist,  adding,  as 
he  did,  several  plants,  not  hitherto  noted,  to  the  British 
flora.  It  is,  however,  to  be  regretted  that  he  allowed 
himself  to  be  deceived — some  think  he  practised  deception 
himself — as  in  the  case  of  the  Pseony,  which  he  records 
as  growing  near  Bristol,  the  red  Rose  in  a  field  in  Cheshire, 
and,  to  crown  all  that,  he  himself  had  seen  young  Bar¬ 
nacle  geese  as  plants,  growing  on  a  plank  of  wood ! 
But  against  these  absurdities  there  is  a  vast  mass  of 
material  absolutely  novel,  and,  withal,  worthy  of  all 
credence.  From  his  remarks  on  the  Potato  it  would  almost 
appear  that  he  secured  roots  from  Virginia  by  Lane’s  expe¬ 
dition,  and  these  he  cultivated.  He  also  tried  to  cultivate 
Cotton  from  seeds,  but  unsuccessfully,  though  it  “  did 
grow  verie  frankly.”  At  the  time  “  The  Herball  ”  was 
passing  through  the  press,  “Master  Nicholas  Lete”  had 
sown  several  pounds  of  seeds,  but  Gerarde  seems,  from 
his  own  experience,  to  have  been  sceptical  of  the  Cotton 
plant  flowering  in  England.  Then,  from  the  gardener’s 
point  of  view,  Gerarde  did  an  immense  benefit  in  directing 
attention  to  the  new  bulbous  plants  which  were  emanating 
from  Constantinople  and  other  eastern  parts.  Of  these 
mention  may  be  made  of  the  Tulip  in  variety,  various 
Liliums,  Narcissus,  Crown  Imperials,  and  Fritillaries. 
Then,  shrubs  may  be  said  to  have  been  unknown  till 
Gerarde  directed  attention  to  them.  He  cultivated,  among 
others,  Cercis  siliquastrum,  Ceratonia  siliqua,  Bupleurum 
fruticosum.  Viburnum  Tinus,  Syringa  vulgaris,  Sambucus 
racemosus,  Spartium  junceum,  and  Colutea  racemosus. 
Staphylea  colchica  seems  to  have  been  somewhat  of  a 
rarity,  as  he  mentions  the  places  it  was  to  be  found — viz., 
“  at  the  house  of  Sir  Walter  Culpepper,  neere  Flimme- 
well,  in  the  Weild  of  Kent,  as  also  in  the  Frieryard  without 
Saint  Paule’s  Gate  in  Stamford,  and  about  Spalding 
Abbey,  and  in  the  garden  of  the  Right  Honourable  the 
Lord  Treasurer,  my  very  good  Lord  and  Master,  and  by 
his  house  in  the  Strand.  It  groweth  also  in  my  garden, 
and  in  the  garden  hedges  of  Sir  Francis  Carew,  neere 
Croydon,  seven  miles  from  London.”  He  goes  on  to  say: 
“It  is  called  in  English  S.  Anthonies  nuts,  Wild  Pistacia, 
or  Bladder  nuts ;  the  Frenchmen  call  it  Baguenaudes  a 
patre  nostres,  for  that  the  Friers  do  use  to  make  beads  of 
the  nuts.”  Then,  referring  to  the  commoner  fruits,  we  dis¬ 
cover  that  he  cultivated  several  kinds  of  Peaches,  of  which 
the  “  yellow  ”  was  considered  that  possessed  of  the  finest 
flavour,  that  Apricots  grew  in  his  own  and  “  many  other 
gentlemen’s  gardens  throughout  all  England.”  Of  Pears 
and  Apples  he  declared  (and  also  of  Plums)  that  each  would 
require  a  separate  volume. 
In  connection  with  Pears,  reference  is  made  to 
specialists,  where  he  says :  “  All  these — specified  and  many 
sorts  more — are  growing  in  the  ground  of  Master  Richard 
Pointer,  a  cunning  and  most  curious  graffer  of  all  manner 
of  rare  fruits,  dwelling  in  a  small  village  neere  London, 
called  Twicknam.”  “  Mr.  Henry  Banbury,  of  Touthill  Street, 
neere  Westminster,”  is  also  mentioned  as  an  “excellent 
graffer  and  painfull  planter.”  From  these  examples,  taken 
quite  at  random,  it  will  be  seen  that  Gerarde  is  an  author 
of  many  fancies,  with  whom  a  pleasant  half-hour  can  be 
spent  very  pleasantly. 
“  The  Herball  ”  was  “  very  much  enlarged  and  amended 
by  Thomas  Johnston,  Citizen  and  Apothecary  of  London,” 
in  the  year  1633,  a  reprint  following  in  1636.  The  new 
editor  was  very  hard  on  poor  Gerarde,  as  well  on  account 
of  his  mistakes  as  because  he  had  been  so  little  straight¬ 
forward  as  not  to  acknowledge  to  whom  he  was  indebted 
for  the  major  portion  of  the  material  of  which  his  book 
was  composed.  Of  Johnston’s  work,  as  a  whole,  it  may 
be  said  that  it  was  largely  an  endeavour  to  bring  Gerarde’s 
original  work  up  to  date. 
Following  as  it  did  closely  after  Parkinson’s  “  Para- 
disus,”  a  book  like  that  under  discussion,  a  masterpiece 
of  its  kind,  it  would  most  likely  hardly  have  been  heard  of, 
but  for  the  man  whom  Johnston  pilloried.  A  specimen 
of  the  latter’s  style  is  here  given,  taken  from  the  chapter 
on  Tulips.  He  says :  “  I  do  verily  thinke  that  these  are 
the  Lillies  of  the  field  mentioned  by  our  Saviour  (Mat.  vi., 
28,  29),  for  he  saith  ‘  That  Solomon  in  all  his  royaltie  was 
not  arayed  like  one  of  these.’  The  reasons  that  induce 
me  to  thinke  thus  are  these:  First,  their  shape,  for  their 
floures  resemble  Lillies,  and  in  these  places,  whereas  our 
Saviour  was  conversant  they  grow  wilde  in  the  fields. 
Secondly,  the  infinite  varieties  of  colour,  which  is  to  be 
found  more  in  this  than  any  other  sort  of  floure  ;  and, 
thirdly,  the  wondrous  beautie  and  mixture  of  these 
floures.”  Johnston  was  the  authority  from  whom  subse¬ 
quent  writers  procured  the  erroneous  date  of  Gerarde's 
death — “about  1607” — instead  of  the  date  given  at  the 
beginning  of  these  notes.  The  correction  first  appeared 
over  the  signature  “  G  ”  in  this  Journal  in  the  number  for 
February  18,  1875,  in  an  article  of  the  greatest  interest 
on  Gerarde. — B. 
(To  be  concluded.) 
