For those who care to seek it Gerard supplies an unequalled picture of the wild-flower life in London in Elizabethan days. It is pleasant to think of the little wild bugloss growing "in the drie ditch bankes about Piccadilla" (Piccadilly), of mullein "in the highwaies about Highgate"; of clary "in the fields of Holborne neere unto Grays Inn"; of lilies of the valley, the rare white-flowered betony, devil's-bit, saw-wort, whortleberries, dwarf willows and numerous other wild plants on Hampstead Heath; of the yellow-flowered figwort "in the moist medowes as you go from London to Hornsey"; of the yellow pimpernel "growing in abundance between Highgate and Hampstead"; of sagittaria "in the Tower ditch at London"; of white saxifrage "in the great field by Islington called the Mantles and in Saint George's fields behinde Southwarke"; of the vervain mallow "on the ditch sides on the left hand of the place of execution by London called Tyburn and in the bushes as you go to Hackney"; of marsh-mallows "very plentifully in the marshes by Tilbury Docks"; of the great wild burnet "upon the side of a causey, which crosseth a field whereof the one part is earable ground and the other part medow, lying between Paddington and Lysson Green neere unto London upon the highway"; of hemlock dropwort "betweene the plowed lands in the moist and wet furrowes of a field belonging to Battersey by London, and amongst the osiers against York House a little above the Horse-ferry against Lambeth"; of the small earth-nut "in a field adjoyning to Highgate on the right side of the middle of the village and likewise in the next field and by the way that leadeth to Paddington by London"; of chickweed spurry "in the sandy grounds in Tothill fields nigh Westminster"; of the pimpernel rose "in a pasture as you goe from a village hard by London called Knightsbridge unto Fulham, a village thereby"; of dwarf elder "in untoiled places plentifully in the lane at Kilburne Abbey by London"; of silver cinquefoil "upon brick and stone walls about London, especially upon the bricke wall in Liver Lane"; of water-ivy, "which is very rare to find, nevertheless I found it once in a ditch by Bermondsey house near to London and never elsewhere."