“The first kinde of Geranion or Storckes bill, his leaves are cut and iagged in many peeces, like to Crowfoote, his stalkes be slender, and parted into sundry braunches, upon which groweth smal floures somwhat like roses, or the floures of Mallowes, of a light murrey or redde colour: after them commeth little round heades, with smal long billes, like Nedels, or like the beakes of Cranes and Hearons, wherein the seede is contayned: The roote is thicke, round, shorte, and knobby, with certayne small strings hanging by it.”
In his ‘Pemptades’ of 1583, Dodoens gave a glossary of botanical terms. His definitions suffer, however, from vagueness, and are not calculated greatly to advance the accurate description of plants. As an example we may take his account of the flower, which may be translated as follows:—
“The flower (ἄνθος) we call the joy of trees and plants. It is the hope of fruits to come, for every growing thing, according to its nature, produces offspring and fruit after the flower. But flowers have their own special parts.”
The descriptions from the pen of de l’Écluse are characterised by greater fulness and closer attention to flower structure than those of his predecessors. The plant which he calls Sedum or Sempervivum majus, of which his wood-cut is reproduced in Text-fig. [59], is described as being “a shrub rather than a herb; occasionally it reaches the height of two cubits [3 ft.] and is as thick as the human arm, with a quantity of twigs as thick as a man’s thumb: these spread out into numerous rays of the thickness of a finger. The ends of these terminate in a kind of circle, which is formed by numerous leaves pressing inwards all together and overlapping, just as in Sedum vulgare majus. These leaves however are fat and full of juice, and shaped like a tongue, and slightly serrated round the edge, with a somewhat astringent flavour; the whole shrub is coated with a thick, fleshy, sappy bark. The outer membrane inclines to a dark colour, and is speckled as in Tithymalus characia: the speckles are simply the remains of leaves which have fallen off. Meanwhile a thick pedicel covered with leaves springs out from the top of the larger branches, and bears, so to speak, a thyrsus of many yellow flowers, scattered about like stars, pleasant to behold. And when the flowers begin to ripen, and are running to seed (the seed is very small), the pedicel grows slender. But the plant is an evergreen.”
Text-fig. 59. “Sedum majus” [de l’Écluse, Rariorum ... per Hispanias, 1576]
Text-fig. 60. “Battata Virginiana” = Solanum tuberosum L., Potato [Gerard, The Herball, 1597].