During Tudor and Stuart times, British Herbal Botany was at its peak, many major herbals were printed, showing the knowledge of increasing numbers of herbs from abroad, and displaying the forma and nature of many plants, using woodcuts for the meticulous illustrations  for the first time to begin to give the information to a wider lay audience.

The Historie of Plantes was translated from the Dutch (written by Rambert Dodoens) by Henry Lyte, who founded an early botanic garden in Oxford. But in 1597, John Gerard wrote a massive work called “The Herball or General Historie of Plantes” which ,though he used information from Dodoens, added a great deal of new information. He included, for example plants from” the New Lande called America, and included the first drawing of a potato – and also the first mention of “apples of love” – later called the tomato. Her wrote another book cataloguing the plants he grew in his Physic garden in Fetter Lane. Another major herbalist whose book still is reprinted is Nicholas Culpeper  - whose book also shows the influence of astrology on the use of medical herbs ! Other herbalists of note, though less well known were John Parkinson, Charles 1^st Herbalist and James 1^st Apothecary and Mathias Lobel, William Coys and John Goodyear. These early book show the range of comprehensive knowledge about plants, their growing habits and their uses – information that has been in danger of being ignored during the 20^th century, though interest is growing now.