Even Hector Boece, in his _Hystory and Croniklis of Scotland_ (1536), took the myth seriously, but in his opinion "the nature of the seis is mair relevant caus of their procreation than ony uther thyng." William Turner accepted the myth and gives as his evidence what had been told him by an eye-witness, "a theologian by profession and an Irishman by birth, Octavian by name," who promised him that he would take care that some growing chicks should be sent to him! In later times we find that Gaspar Schott (_Physica Curiosa Sive Mirabilia Naturæ et Artis_, 1662, lib. ix. cap. xxii. p. 960) quotes a vast number of authorities on the subject and then demonstrates the absurdity of the myth. Yet in 1677 Sir Robert Moray read before the Royal Society "A Relation concerning Barnacles," and this was published in the _Philosophical Transactions_, January-February 1677-8. Among illustrations of the barnacle geese, that in de l'Obel's _Stirpium Historia_ (1571) depicts the tree without the birds. Gerard shows the tree with the birds; in Aldrovandus leaves have been added to the tree and there is also an illustration showing the development of the barnacles into geese.
As in all herbals the element of the unexpected is not lacking in Gerard. Who would think of finding under the eminently dull heading "fir trees" the following gem of folk lore? "I have seen these trees growing in Cheshire and Staffordshire and Lancashire, where they grew in great plenty as is reported before Noah's flood, but then being overturned and overwhelmed have lien since in the mosse and waterie moorish grounds very fresh and sound untill this day; and so full of a resinous substance, that they burne like a Torch or Linke and the inhabitants of those countries do call it Fir-wood and Fire-wood unto this day: out of the tree issueth the rosin called Thus, in English Frankincense." In these days of exaggerated phraseology one is the more appreciative of that word "overturned." Gerard mentions the famous white Thorn at Glastonbury, but he is very cautious in his account of it. "The white thorn at Glastonbury ... which bringeth forth his floures about Christmas by the report of divers of good credit, who have seen the same; but myselfe have not seen it and therefore leave it to be better examined."