174 HISTORY OF ESSEX BOTANY.
Of Thomas Johnson there is a tolerably full account in t he
Flora of Middlesex (pp. 370-2) and a biography, by the present
writer, in the Dictionary of National Biography (vol. xxx., p. 47).
He was born at Selby, Yorkshire, lived at one time in Lincoln-
shire, and practised as an apothecary on Snow Hill. In 1595
he seems to have published Cornucopia or divers secrets (London,
pp. 46); and in 1629, Iter Plantarum Investigationis ergo susceptum . .
in Agrum Cantianum, the first account of a botanical excursion
printed in England, with Ericetum Hamstedianum, an account of a
herborization on Hampstead Heath, as an appendix. In 1630
he issued A new Booke of new Conceits .... (London, pp.
24)24 ; in 1632, Enumeratio Plantarum in Ericeto Hampstediano (p. 7),
the earliest English Florula ; and in 1633, as the result, mirabile
dictu, of only a year's work,25 his "very much enlarged and
amended" edition of Gerard. This contained some 800
additional plants and 700 new figures, making in all, according
to Pulteney, 2850 descriptions and 2717 figures ; whilst the much
needed corrections of Gerard's blunders are at least as valuable
as the additions. The editor's additions are generally, but
unfortunately not always, marked with ‡‡ ; and yet many
modern writers quote all alike as "Gerarde." The
Herball was reprinted, without further alteration, in 1636.
Meanwhile in 1634 Johnson published Mercurius Botanicus
(London, pp. 78), a description of a twelve days' tour
in the south-west of England, with an appendix De Thermis
Bathonicis. This was followed, in 1641, by Mercurii Botanici Pars
altera (London, pp. 37) describing a tour in Wales.26 As a
royalist, Johnson, in 1642, was made Bachelor of Physic by the
University of Oxford and became M.D. in the following year,
in which he published a translation of the medical works of
Ambroise Pare. At the siege of Basing House, Johnson became
lieutenant-colonel under Sir Marmaduke Rawdon, fired the
Grange near by, killing three hundred of Waller's men, wounding
five hundred more, and capturing stores ; but was shot in the
shoulder on September 14th, 1644, during a sally, and died a
fortnight later, "being then no less eminent in the garrison lor
his valour and conduct as a soldier, than famous through the
kingdom for his excellency as a herbalist and physician."27
24 British Museum press mark 1036. b. 33. Reprinted by Halliwell in his Literature
of the 10th ami 77th centuries, 1851. These two Opuscula are not mentioned in the Dictionary
of National Biography.
25 Vide Appendix to the Herball : Preface, p. 1591.
26 Having become very scarce, the smaller botanical works of Johnson were reprinted
in 1847 by T. S. Ralph, under the title of Opuscula omnia botanica Thomae Johnsoni ; but the
reprint is now scarce.
27 Antony a Wood.