Fauna and flora listed in John Hooker’s manuscript ‘Synopsis chorographical of Devonshire’ (1599)

This paper introduces and comments on the animals and plants listed in a manuscript dated 1599 (the ‘Berry-Pomeroy Manuscript’), the ‘Synopsis chorographical of Devonshire’ by John Hooker of Exeter (1527–1601). Two hundred and seventy eight animals and plants were named, which is an unprecedented number for a local natural history text from sixteenth-century Britain. The animals mentioned include some of considerable interest like the wolf, bear, roe deer and red deer, polecat, black rat, white stork, Cornish chough and numerous freshwater fishes. Several cultivated varieties of domesticated fruit trees, in particular apples and pears, and other local specialities that are no longer known were also in Hooker’s list.