This was the catalogue of John Gerarde's garden at Holborn, where he introduced exotic trees, fruits, and plants from the New World, and also grew widely available English plants. The text was very basic, being essentially a plant list, the first list of its kind. The edition must have been relatively small since only one copy survived, in the Hans Sloane collection in the British Library. In addition to his career as a surgeon, Gerard was superintendent at the gardens of William Cecil, Lord Burghley, a position he continued in for more than 20 years. In 1586, the College of Physicians established a physic garden with Gerard as curator, a position he held till 1604.

In his garden catalogue Gerard listed over 1000 different trees, shrubs and plants that he was personally growing. In the revised second edition of 1599 he added English names for the plants.