308
THE ESSEX NATURALIST
William Coys' gardening efforts were not always entirely
free from that petty jealousy which even in these days exists
between rival gardeners. Parkinson, author of "Paradisus
Terrestris" and of "Theatrum botanicum", seems to have
thought he had cause for complaint, because the collector
William Boel, a Low Countryman whom he paid to collect
seeds for him in Spain, is accused of giving Parkinson's
seeds to Coys. Parkinson wrote :—
"All these sorts grow in Spain and from thence were
brought with a number of other rare seeds and imparted
to Mr. Coys of Stubbers in Essex in love as a lover of rare
plants, but to me of debt, for going into Spain almost
wholly on my charge he brought me little else for my
money, but while I beate the bush another catcheth and
eateth the bird ..."
It appears that John Goodyer, of whom I shall have
something to say shortly, saw the plants grown from Boel's
seeds in Parkinson's garden in 1616. Four years later he
received seed of them from William Coys. Descriptions of
the plants grown from these were sent by him to Johnson,
who, knowing their history and that Parkinson was pre-
paring a book, added them to his edition of Gerard's
Herball as an appendix. It is hardly surprising that Par-
kinson was annoyed, but it does not seem fair to blame
Boel, or Goodyer who sent the notes to Johnson before
Parkinson had written anything.
Some 12 years after Lobelius visited Stubbers, a famous
English botanist, John Goodyer, of Hampshire, visited
William Coys and the garden. There is no time to tell you
much of John Goodyer beyond that he was a copious note
writer, using every scrap of paper to which he could lay his
hands to write botanical notes upon. At his death he
bequeathed :—
"... all my books de plantis which I do give and be-
queath to Magdalen College in Oxon to be kept entirely
in the library of the said College for the use of the said
College."
For botanists this was a most magnificent bequest, for it
has enabled us to know more of contemporary botanical
work than can be found from almost any other source. These
books and papers have been examined by Dr. Gunther, who