Appendix I have transcribed a list of the plants referred to. Most cooks
would be unable to tell one from another; and even modern herbalists have
let many fall out of use, while only a few are on the lists of the English
pharmacopeia. To go simpling once more by field and wood and hedgerow would
be a pleasant duty for country housewives to impose upon themselves; and as
to the herbalists' observations on their virtues, we may say with old
Coles, "Most of them I am confident are true, and if there be any that are
not so, yet they are pleasant."

There is an air of flippancy about that reflexion of Coles you will never
find in Sir Kenelm. Of the virtues of each plant and flower he used he was
fully convinced; and when he tells of their powers, as in his "Aqua
Mirabilis," the tale is like a solemn litany, and we are reminded of
Clarendon's testimony to "the gravity of his motion." And so, his Closet
once more open, he stands at the door, his majesty not greatly lessened;
for the book contains a reminiscence of his rolling eloquence, something
of his romance, and not a little of his poetry.

ANNE MACDONELL.

_Chelsea_, 1910.

THE
CLOSET
Of the Eminently Learned
Sir _Kenelme Digbie_ K^{t}.
OPENED:

Whereby is DISCOVERED
Several ways for making of