Parkinson's monumental work, _Theatrum Botanicum_, was completed, as already mentioned, in his seventy-third year. In it about 3800 plants are described (nearly double the number of those in the first edition of Gerard's Herbal). In the _Theatrum_ he incorporated nearly the whole of Bauhin's _Pinax_, besides part of the unfinished work by de l'Obel mentioned before. The book remained the most complete English treatise on plants until the time of Ray. Parkinson originally intended to entitle it "A Garden of Simples"[95] and, had he done so, it is at least possible that this work, to which he devoted the greater part of his life, would have achieved the popularity it deserved. Except in the illustrations, it is a finer book than Gerard's, but the latter remained the more popular. In fact, this herbal of Parkinson's is an outstanding proof that a good book may be ruined by a bad title. _Theatrum Botanicum_ sounds hard and chilling, whereas _Gerard's Herball_ has an attractive ring. The fact that the former never attained the popularity achieved by the latter seems the more pathetic when we read the author's own concluding charge to this work of his lifetime:--"Goe forth now therefore thou issue artificial of mine and supply the defect of a Naturall, to beare up thy Father's name and memory to succeeding ages and what in thee lyeth effect more good to thy Prince and Country then numerous of others, which often prove rather plagues then profits thereto, and feare not the face of thy fiercest foe." The ornamental title-page of the _Theatrum Botanicum_ is both interesting and impressive. The two most important figures are those of Adam and Solomon (representing Toil and Wisdom respectively). Solomon is dressed in a long coat with an ermine cape, and he wears Roman sandals. At the four corners of the page are female figures:--Europe driving majestically in a chariot with a pair of horses; Asia clad in short skirts and shoes with curled points and riding a rhinoceros; Africa wearing only a hat, and mounted upon a zebra; and America, also unclothed, carrying a bow and arrow and riding a sheep with surprisingly long ears. Each of these figures is surrounded by specimens of the vegetation of their respective continents. It is curious to find in the dedicatory letter to Charles I. a touch of the old belief that diseases are due to evil spirits:--