[12] He is called Botanicus Regius by Cornuti, p. 22; and the same title is given to both the Robins, in the printed catalogue of plants cultivated by them. Tournefort indicates the office of Vespasian Robin, at the new Botanic Garden, as follows: “Brossæus ... primus Horti præfectus, studiosis plantas indigitandi numeri præposuit Vespasianum Robinum diligentissimum Botanicum.”—Inst. Rei Herb., vol. i. p. 48. And the recent writer in the Biographic Universelle, says, more expressly, that the royal ordonnance establishing the garden names Vespasian Robin “sub-demonstrator” of botany, with a stipend of two hundred francs yearly. According to this writer, the two Robins were not, as has been said, father and son, but brothers; and Vespasian the elder. This one must have reached a great age, as the celebrated Morrison, who visited France in 1640, and remained there twelve years, calls himself his disciple.—Biog. Universelle, in loco.
[13] Tournefort, ubi supra.
[14] Cornuti autem parum fuit in plantarum cognitione versatus, ut manifestum est ex ineptis appellationibus quibus utitur in Enchiridio Botanico Parisiensi, et descriptionibus speciosis ab Herbariorum stylo tamen alienis.—Tournef. Inst., vol. i. p. 43. Compare, as to the botanical merits of Cornuti, the writer in Biographic Universelle, who says that Cornuti’s terminology, to which Tournefort took exception, was that of Lobel; and farther, that the catalogue—Enchiridium Botanicum Parisiense—which is annexed to Cornuti’s larger work, is in several respects creditable to him.—Biog. Univ., in loco.
[15] Mention of New-England plants may be found in earlier writers than Cornuti or Josselyn; but what is said is now rarely available. Gosnold’s expedition was in 1602; and the writer of the account of it tells us that the island upon which his party proposed to settle (Cuttyhunk, one of the Elizabeth Islands) was covered with “oaks, ashes, beech, walnut, witch-hazel, sassafrage, and cedars, with divers others of unknown names;” beside “wild pease, young sassafrage, cherry-trees, vines, eglantine, gooseberry-bushes, hawthorn, honeysuckles, with others of the like quality;” as also “strawberries, rasps, ground-nuts, alexander, surrin, tansy, &c., without count.”—Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. xxviii. p. 76. And so the writer of Mourt’s Relation, in 1620, speaks of “sorrel, yarrow, carvel, brook-lime, liverwort, watercresses, &c.”, as noticed, “in winter,” however, at Plymouth.—Hist. Coll. vol. viii. p. 221. There is much here which is true enough, though the “eglantine” of the first writer is an evident mistake, as doubtless also the “carvel” of the other; but we have no reason to suppose that either of these passages ever had any scientific value. Josselyn, so far as his Botany goes, does not belong to this class of writers. There are important parts of his account of our plants, in which we know with certainty what he intended to tell us; and, farther, that this was worth the telling. And the credit which fairly belongs to the new genera of American plants, in some sort indicated by him, shall illustrate as well those other portions of his work where what he meant is a matter rather of deduction from his particulars, such as they are, in the light of his only here-and-there-cited authorities, than of plain fact. His English names—common, and perhaps often indefinite, as they strike us—had more of scientific value, in botanical hands at least, when he wrote, than now; and, there is good reason to suppose, were meant to indicate that the plants intended, or in some cases the genera to which they belonged, were the same with those published, under the same names, by Gerard, Johnson, and Parkinson.
[16] Winthrop’s Journal, by Savage, edit. 1, vol. i. p. 64, note. See also Bancroft’s character of the younger Winthrop, in History of the United States, vol. ii. p. 52.
[17] Eliot, Biog. Dict., in loco.
[18] Eliot, Biog. Dict., in loco.
[19] Interleaved Almanacs of 1646-48, cited by Savage (Winthrop, N. E., vol. ii. p. 332), mention “Tankard” and “Kreton” (perhaps Kirton) apples, as well as Russetins, Pearmains, and Long-Red apples; beside “the great pears,” and apricots, as grown here. In the Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay (Records of Mass., vol. i. p. 24), there is an undated memorandum, “To provide to send for Newe England ... stones of all sorts of fruites; as peaches, plums, filberts, cherries, pear, aple, quince kernells,” &c., which the “First General Letter of the Governor,” &c., of the 17th April, 1629, again makes mention of (ibid., p. 392); and Josselyn (Voyages, p. 189) remarks on the “good fruit” reared from such kernels. But, if this were the only source of our ancestors’ English fruit, the names which they gave to the seedlings must have been vague.—For other early notices of cultivated fruit-trees, see Savage Gen. Dict. 4, p. 258, and the same, 4, p. 621. Saml. Sewall, jun. Esq., of Brookline, had trees grafted with ‘Drew’s Russet,’ and ‘Golden Russet’ apples, in 1724. (Gen. Reg. 16, p. 65.)
[20] Gronov. Fl. Virg., edit. 2. In Mr. Dillwyn’s (unpublished) “Account of the Plants cultivated by the late Peter Collinson,” from his own catalogue and other manuscripts, I find Collinson quoting Mr. Dudley’s paper on Plants of New England, above mentioned; but not that on the Evergreens.—Hortus Collins., p. 41.
[21] Eliot, Biog. Dict., and Allen, Amer. Biog. Dict., in locis.