The herball or, Generall historie of plantes
John Gerard's 1597 London herbal, printed by John Norton, is a general history of plants aimed at physicians, apothecaries and gardeners, with medicinal botany as its subject. Its pictures are small woodcut plant portraits, each showing a whole plant with roots, stems, leaves and flowers drawn in clean outline, which a designer could use for botanical line work, vintage specimen layouts or simple repeated natural motifs.
