As in the _Grete Herball_, there are many descriptions of other substances besides herbs, some of the longest being of dates, rice, olives, citron, pomegranates and lentils. The account of citron it would be pleasant to transcribe in full, not for the sake of the story but for the manner of the telling. One could listen to a sermon of considerable length from a divine who, in a book intended for grown-ups, has a tale of "two naughty murthering robbers, condemned for theyr murder and robery to be flayn and poysoned to deth of serpentes, and such venemous bestes," and of the one who, owing to having eaten "a pece of citron," remained, Daniel-like, unhurt by the poison of the snakes, whilst the other who had not taken this precaution "fell down sterk dede." And finally, the moral--"Wherefore it were wisdome that noblemen and other that are bydden to dynner of theyr enemies or suspected frendes before they eat any other thyng should take a pece of citron."
The later sixteenth-century herbalists owed much to the famous herbalists of the Netherlands, and above all to that prince amongst publishers, Christophe Plantin of Antwerp, whose personality secured him a unique place in the literary world. Indeed, there is a splendour about the works of the Flemish herbalists unequalled by any others of this period, with the exception of the Bavarian doctor Leonhard Fuchs. There is no comparison between them and the Italian herbalists of the Renaissance, who, for the greater part, devoted themselves to studying the classical writers and identifying the plants mentioned by the old authorities. France, curiously enough, contributed comparatively little when the herbal was at its zenith, though it must of course be remembered that the Bauhins, who rank as Swiss herbalists, were of French extraction. But it is difficult to estimate the influence of the works of those three notable friends, Rembert Dodoens, Charles de l'Escluse and Matthias de l'Obel, particularly on the English herbalists. The most famous English herbal--Gerard's--is virtually a translation of the _Pemptades_ of Dodoens. Lyte's translation of the _Cruÿdtboeck_ was the standard work on herbs during the latter part of the century, and Parkinson incorporated a large part of de l'Obel's unfinished book in his _Theatrum Botanicum_.