that John Tradescante brought with him from Brussels (l.
Russia) long ago, and in seven years could never see one berry ripe on
all sides, but still the better part rotten, although it would flower
abundantly every yeare, and beare very large leaves."

Tradescant mentions that he also saw strawberries to be sold in Russia, but
could never get of the plants, though he saw the berries three times at Sir
D. Digges's table; but as they were in nothing differing from ours, but
only less, he did not much seek after them. It is most probable that he
brought seed, as he did of another berry, of which he sent part, he tells
us, to his correspondent Vespasian Robin at Paris.

Of a man to whom the merit is due of having founded the earliest Museum of
Natural History and Rarities of Art in England, and who possessed one of
the first, and at the same the best, Botanic Garden, every little
particular must be interesting, and it would be pleasing to find that he
was an Englishman, and not a foreigner. The only ground for the latter
supposition is, I believe, the assertion of Anthony a Wood, that he was a
Fleming or a Dutchman. The name Tradescant is, however, neither Flemish nor
Dutch, and seems to me much more like an assumed English pseudonyme. That
he was neither a Dutchman nor a Fleming will, I think, be obvious from the
following passage in the narration of his travels:

"Also, I haue been tould that theare growethe in the land bothe tulipes
and narsisus. By a Brabander I was tould it, thoug by his name I should
rather think him a Holander. His name is Jonson, and hathe a house at
Archangell. He may be eyther, for he [is] always dr[=u]ke once in a
day."

Now, had Tradescant himself been a Fleming or a Dutchman, he would at least
have been able to speak decisively on this occasion; to say nothing of the
vice of intemperance which he attributes to the natives of those countries.
Again, it is quite clear that this journal of travels was written by
Tradescant; yet that name does not appear either in the MS. or in the
Russian archives: but we have _John Coplie_ in both, with the indication in
the MS. that he was _a Worcestershire man_. Let us therefore, on these
grounds, place him in the list of English worthies to whom we owe a debt of
gratitude. But supposing _Tradescant_ to have been his real name, it is
quite evident that he travelled under the name of _John Coplie_; and it is
perhaps vain to spec