[99] It is evident that Merrett was collecting a considerable amount of materials for an enlarged edition of his _Pinax Rerum Naturalium Britannicarum_, on behalf of which Browne seems, by this introductory letter, to have tendered his assistance, but the contemplated edition, probably for reasons which I have mentioned elsewhere, never appeared; happily, these rough drafts have been preserved, although it seems not unlikely that the letters themselves, should they ever be found, would differ from them in some respects.
[100] _Scarabæus capricornus odoratus._ The Musk Beetle, _Aromia moschata_, L.
[101] _Acorus calamus_, the Sweet Flag, is still found in plenty in various localities in the county, but it does not appear to develop its curious "julus" every year. It was very abundant at Heigham, a suburb of Norwich, on the site now occupied by the goods yard of the Midland and Great Northern Railway, and it was probably from this spot that the supply was obtained for the purpose of littering the floor of the old parish church. Mr. Vaux, in his "Church Folk-Lore," p. 264, says that up to the passing of the Municipal Reform Bill the Town Clerk of Norwich was accustomed to pay the sub-sacrist of the cathedral an amount of one guinea for strewing the floor with rushes on the Mayor's Day. The custom is said to have been adopted "as well for coolness as for pleasant smell." The pleasant cinnamon-like scent of the rush, on being trodden on, is said to have perfumed the whole building. The root was also used as a remedy in cases of ague, and formed the base of tooth and hair powders.
[102] Towards the end of the Introductory Letter to Johnson's (1636) Edition of Gerard's "Herball," he acknowledges the assistance he received from Mr. John Goodyer, of Maple-Durham, in Hampshire. Sir J. E. Smith ("Eng. Flora," iv., p. 34) speaks of him as "one of the most deserving of our early English Botanists." Robert Brown named a genus of plants (_Goodyera_) after Goodyer.
[103] William How, 1620-1656, was the author of "Phytologia Britannica," Lond., 1650, "the earliest work on botany restricted to the plants of this island" ("Dic. of Nat. Biog."). He practised medicine in London.
Sesamoides Salamanticum Magnum.[104] Why you omit Sesamoides Salamanticum parvum this groweth not far from Thetford and Brandon and plentifull in neighbour places where I found it and have it in my hortus hyemalis answering ye description in Gerard.