In the reigns of Elizabeth and James the herbalists appear to have had Hampstead Heath very much to themselves. The laundresses must have had light feet, and children have been comparatively few.
Otherwise they did not wander so far as Bishop’s Wood, or the old Target Bank, where the lilies of the valley grew so plentifully in Johnson’s time. Johnson was the pupil of Gerard, and the editor of a new edition of his master’s work, the ‘Great Herbal.’ To this lover of Nature, an apothecary by profession, is due the honour of having prepared the first catalogue of local plants ever published in England, the locality of these plants being the Heath and the Woods of Hampstead; many of the plants have survived the predatory habits of London flower-vendors, and still flourish in their old habitats.
Of the survivors, we are glad to give the following list from personal acquaintance with them:
March and April.
Common Daisy (Bella perennis).—Perennial everywhere. We gathered it on the East Heath January 26, 1874.
Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa).—Upper and West Heath.
Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris).—The borders of the old watercourse at the back of Jack Straw’s Castle. This watercourse is now extinct (1895).
Pasque Flower (Anemone Pulsatilla).—On a bank at the edge of the Upper Heath. A small bed of it amongst the whitethorn-trees going to the Leg of Mutton Pond.
Dandelion (Leontodon taraxacum).—In grassy places. East and West Heaths, everywhere.