the blossoms and hath white seed and a
white and very fragrant root." The word "reversed" is not in the
original and was therefore added by the Saxon translator, who had
observed the fact that all the thistle tribe protect their leaves by
thorns pointing backwards as well as forwards.

[7] It is interesting to remember that even as late as the sixteenth
century plantain was called "waybroad." See _Turner's Herbal_.

[8] There are numerous Latin MSS. of this book, chiefly in Italian
libraries, several being in the Laurentian Library at Florence. The
book was first printed at Rome, probably soon after 1480, by Joh.
Philippus de Lignamine, who was also the editor. De Lignamine, who was
physician to Pope Sixtus IV., says that he found this MS. in the
library of the monastery of Monte Cassino. In the first impression the
book is dedicated to Cardinal de Gonzaga; in the second impression to
Cardinal de Ruvere. (The copy in the British Museum is of the second
impression.) In this small quarto volume the illustrations are rough
cuts. It is interesting to remember that these are the earliest known
printed figures of plants. The printed text contains a large number of
Greek and Latin synonyms which do not appear in the Saxon translation.
Subsequent editions were printed in 1528 (Paris) and in the Aldine
Collection of Latin medical writers, 1547 (Venice).

[9] Cratevas is said to have lived in the first century B.C. Pliny,
Dioscorides and Galen all quote him.

[10] Erlanger, _Beitraege zur englischen Philologie_, No. XII. (+peri
didaxeon+), eine Sammlung von Rezepten in englischer Sprache.

[11] Printed by De Renzi in _Collectio Salernitana_, Vol. IV. (Naples,
1856).

[12] _English Medicine in the Anglo-Saxon Times._

[13] On the preceding blank page there is an inscription in late
seventeenth-century handwriting--

"This boucke with letters is wr [remainder of word illegible]
Of it you cane no languige make.
Ba C.
A happie end if thou dehre [dare] to make
Remember still thyn owne esstate,
If thou desire in Christ to die
Thenn well to lead thy lif applie
barbara crokker."

It is at least probable that Wanley, who at this period was collecting
Anglo-Saxon manuscripts for George Hickes, secured this MS. from
"barbara crokker." Her naive avowal of her inability to read the MS.
suggests that she probably had no idea of the value of the book, and