TO

MY BROTHER

"The Lely is an herbe wyth a whyte floure. And though the
levys of the floure be whyte: yet wythin shyneth the
lykenesse of golde."--BARTHOLOMAEUS ANGLICUS (_circ._ 1260).

PREFACE

The writing of this book on that fascinating and somewhat neglected[1]
branch of garden literature--the old English Herbals--has been a
labour of love, but it could not have been done without all the kind
help I have had. My grateful thanks are due to the authorities at the
British Museum, to Professor Burkitt of Cambridge, and very specially
to Mr. J. B. Capper for invaluable help. I am indebted to Dr. James,
the Provost of Eton, for his kind permission to reproduce an
illustration from a twelfth-century MS. in the Library of Eton College
for the frontispiece. I find it difficult to express either my
indebtedness or my gratitude to Dr. and Mrs. Charles Singer, the
former for all his help and the latter for her generous permission to
make use of her valuable bibliography of early scientific manuscripts.
I am further indebted to Dr. Charles Singer for reading the chapter on
the Anglo-Saxon herbals in proof. For their kind courtesy in answering
my inquiries concerning the MS. herbals in the libraries of their
respective cathedrals, I offer my grateful thanks to the Deans of
Lincoln and Gloucester Cathedrals, and to the Rev. J. N. Needham for
information concerning the herbals in the library of Durham Cathedral;
to the librarians of the following colleges--All Souls' College,
Oxford; Balliol College, Oxford; Corpus Christi College, Oxford;
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; Emmanuel College, Cambridge;
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge; Magdalene College, Cambridge;
Peterhouse, Cambridge; Jesus College, Cambridge; St. John's College,
Oxford, and Trinity College, Cambridge; to the librarians of Durham
University, Trinity College, Dublin, the Royal Irish Academy, and the
National Library of Wales; to the Honble. Lady Cecil for information
respecting MSS. in the library of the late Lord Amherst of Hackney;
and to the following owners of private libraries--the Marquis of Bath,
Lord Leconfield, Lord Clifden, Mr. T. Fitzroy Fenwick of Cheltenham,
and Mr. Wynne of Peniarth, Merioneth. For information respecting
incunabula herbals in American libraries I am indebted to Dr. Arnold
Klebs and to Mr. Green of the Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis.

No pains have been