For twenty years, the herbalist John Gerard (1545-1612) served as superintendent of the gardens of Elizabeth I's minister, Lord Burghley. The 1596 edition of Gerard's Catalogus is probably the first complete catalogue of any one garden, public or private, ever published. Describing his own garden, the list includes frankincense, saffron, an almond tree and even tulips, then exotic and notoriously costly. Probably intended originally only for the interest...