pestilence was rife in Seville. "Many did use to carrie a peece of the Roote of the wood with them to smell to it continually, as to a Pomander. For with his smell so acceptable it did rectifie the infected ayre: I caried with mee a peece a greate tyme, and to my seemyng I founde greate profite in it. For with it and with the chewing of the rinde of lemmon in the mornyng and in the daye tyme for to preserve health it hath a greate strength and property. It seemeth to mee that I was delivered by the healpe of God from the fyre in the whiche we that were Phisitions went in, blessed be our Lorde God that delivered us from so great euill and gave us this moste excellente Tree called Sassafras, which hath so greate vertues, and doth suche maruellous effectes as we have spoken of and more that the tyme will shewe us, which is the discouerer of all thinges." * * * * * It is a far cry from Monardes's book to that by "John Josselyn Gentleman," written nearly a hundred years later. Instead of the atmosphere of the El Dorado of the Spanish Main, of the galleons, of the tropical sun and plants of the West Indies, we find ourselves in the good company of the first settlers in New England, the Spanish Empire being only a memory of the past. Just fifty years after the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers on American soil, _New England's Rarities discovered_ was printed at the Green Dragon in St. Paul's Churchyard, London, and the book is of peculiar interest, for it contains the first published lists of English plants that would thrive in America. There is a certain pathos in the efforts of the new settlers to produce in the New Country (which then took two months to reach) something that would remind them of the familiar English gardens of their old homes, and no one with a gardener's heart can read it without sympathy. The book was written by one John Josselyn, who undertook the then perilous voyage in order to stay with his only brother, who lived a hundred leagues from Boston. There he remained about eight years, making it his business to collect all the information he could about plants that interested him. Even as late as 1663 the country was very imperfectly explored, for he gravely informs the reader that he cannot say whether New England is an island or not. He is not very sure whether even America is an island, but is confident that the Indians are closely allied to the Tartars.