What is a herbal?

John Gerard
1545 - 1612

Gardener and Surgeon

He was the first person to write down the plants that he grew in his garden.

People were just beginning to understand the healing power of plants. Gerard was a barber surgeon and caretaker of the Royal College of Physicians garden.

He wrote one of the first books to list all the known plants and their histories.

This book was called

The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes.

The pictures below are taken from the Herball.

Cabbage

There is also found a certaine kinde hereof with the leaves wrapped together into a round head or globe, whose head is white of colur, especially toward winter when it is ripe. The root is hard, and the stalks of a wooddy substance. This is the great ordinary Cabbage knowne every where, and as commonly eaten all over his kingdome.

Lavender

Lily of the Valley

 

As you can see the drawings were examples of close observation and included the roots as well as stems and flowers.

How well can you draw plants?