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Synopsis

A facsimile reprint with introduction and translation of his iter plantarum 1629 descriptio itineris plantarum 1632. edited by j. s. l. gilmour. [includes:] a journey undertaken for the discovery of plants by ten fellows of the society into the county of kent in the year of our lord 1629, on july 13; hampstead heath or an observation of the plants growing there made in the same year on august 1 [and] the description of a journey undertaken for the discovery of plants into the county of kent in the year of our lord 1632 and a list of plants growing on hampstead heath and its neighbourhood.

Item Description

4to. 8 x 11 inches. ix + [i] + 167 pp. + [1]. Facsimile reprints have separate title pages. Bound in original leatherette, gilt, in pictorial dust wrapper, which has wear and repaired chips; otherwise a very good copy. Illustrated by facsimile plates, map in text and two folding maps in red and black. The two works here reproduced and translated are the first separately published accounts of botanical exploration in Britain, and very rare. Previously only printed in Latin, they are here also augmented with scholarly studies that include modern names for the plants and the locations cited. The journeys took Johnson and his companions from London to the Hoo peninsula and Sheppey, and from London to Thanet by boat and via Sandwich, Ash, Wingham and Canterbury, back to London along the now A2. Thomas Johnson (1595/1600-1644) was an apothecary and botanist, who took part in a number of botanical journeys in England, often with fellow apothecaries. Among his other publications was a revised edition of Gerard's Herbal. Johnson joined the Royalist army after the start of the civil war and died of his wounds in 1644 during the second siege of Basing House, Hampshire.