RUM" 48

INITIAL LETTERS FROM "BANCKES'S HERBAL" 56

WOODCUT FROM THE TITLE-PAGE OF THE "GRETE HERBALL" (1526) 64

WOODCUT OF PETER TREVERIS' SIGN OF THE "WODOWS" FROM THE
"GRETE HERBALL" (1529) 70

WOODCUT FROM THE TITLE-PAGE OF THE FOURTH EDITION OF THE
"GRETE HERBALL" (1561) 71

ILLUSTRATIONS FROM TURNER'S "HERBALL" 88

PORTRAIT OF JOHN GERARD FROM THE FIRST EDITION OF THE
"HERBALL" (1597) 104

ILLUSTRATIONS OF SASSAFRAS AND TOBACCO FROM NICHOLAS
MONARDES' "JOYFULL NEWES OUT OF THE NEWE FOUNDE
WORLDE" (1577) 128

TITLE-PAGE OF PARKINSON'S "PARADISUS" (1629) 144

TITLE-PAGE OF PARKINSON'S "THEATRUM BOTANICUM" (1640) 152

PORTRAIT OF JOHN PARKINSON FROM THE "PARADISUS" (1629) 160

NICHOLAS CULPEPER FROM "THE ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED" 166

FRONTISPIECE OF "THE CURIOUS DESTILLATORY," BY THOMAS
SHIRLEY, M.D., PHYSICIAN IN ORDINARY TO HIS MAJESTY
(1677) 174

THE OLD ENGLISH HERBALS

CHAPTER I

THE ANGLO-SAXON HERBALS

"Everything possible to be believ'd is an image of truth."
WILLIAM BLAKE.

There is a certain pathos attached to the fragments from any great
wreck, and in studying the few Saxon manuscripts, treating of herbs,
which have survived to our day, we find their primary fascination not
so much in their beauty and interest as in the visions they conjure up
of those still older manuscripts which perished during the terrible
Danish invasions. That books on herbs were studied in England as early
as the eighth century is certain, for we know that Boniface, "the
Apostle of the Saxons," received letters from England asking him for
books on simples and complaining that it was difficult to obtain the
foreign herbs mentioned in those we already possessed.[2] But of these
manuscripts none have survived, the oldest we possess being of the
tenth century, and for our knowledge of Anglo-Saxon plant lore we look
chiefly to those four important manuscripts--the _Leech Book of Bald_,
the _Lacnunga_ and the Saxo