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A NEW AND GENERAL

BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.

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TRADESCANT (JOHN), a contributor to the study of natural history in this country in the seventeenth century, was by birth a Dutchman, as we are informed by Anthony Wood. On what occasion, and at what period he came into England, is not precisely ascertained, but it may supposed to have been about the end of queen Elizabeth's reign, or the beginning of that of James I. as Hollar's print of him, engraved in 1656, represents him as a person very far advanced in years. He is said to have been for a considerable time in the service of lord treasurer Salisbury and lord Wooton. He travelled several years, and into various parts of Europe; as far eastward as into Russia. In 1620 he was in a fleet that was sent against the Algerines; and mention is made of his collecting plants in Barbary, and in the isles of the Mediterranean. He is said to have brought the trifolium stellatum of Linnæus from the isle of Fermentera; and his name frequently occurs in the second edition of Gerard, by Johnson; in Parkinson's "Theatre of Plants," and in his "Garden of Flowers," printed in 1656. But Dr. Pulteney conjectures that Tradescant was not resident in England in the time of Gerard himself, or known to him.

He appears, however, to have been established in England, and his garden founded at Lambeth; aud about 1629 he obtained the title of gardener to Charles I. Tradescant was a man of extraordinary curiosity, and the first in this country who made any considerable collection of the subjects of natural history. He had a son of the same name, who took a voyage to Virginia, whence he returned with many new plants. They were the means of introducing a VOL. XXX.

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