John, a surgeon in London, and the greatest herbalist of his time, was many years chief gardener to Lord Burghley, who had the best collection of plants in the kingdom, among which were a great number of exotics introduced by Gerarde. In 1597 the latter published his Herbal, which was printed at the expense of J. Norton, who procured from Frankfort the same blocks in wood which were used in the Herbal of Tabernamontanus. In 1663 Dr Thomas Johnson published an improved edition of Gerarde's book, which met with such approbation in the university of Oxford that they conferred upon him the degree of doctor of physic. The descriptions in the Herbal are plain and familiar; and both these authors have laboured more to make their readers understand the characters of the plants than to inform them that they themselves understood Greek and Latin. The Herbal of Gerarde is now considered only as a literary curiosity. The figures in general express very accurately the characters of the plants which they are intended to represent. Gerarde died about the year 1607.