BOTANIC GARDENS. 



173 



tlie title of " lectura simplicium/' by the professors of anatomy 

 and surgery. It is interesting to note that the laboratory method 

 of handling the course in " cognitio simplicium" was not intro- 

 duced until the establishment of the botanic garden at the Uni- 

 versity of Padua, when, in addition to the lectures, exercises in 

 the demonstration of remedial plants growing in the garden were 

 given under the title of " ostencio simplicium." 



The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries witnessed the founda- 

 tion of many gardens in England, France, Germany, Holland, and 

 Sweden, some of which have had a continuous existence to this 

 day. The garden of Bologna was founded in 1568 ; Leyden, 1577 ; 

 Leipsic, 1579; Montpellier, 1596; and Paris in 1597. The last 



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View of the Laboratory in the Oxford Botanic Garden. Alter a piiotogniph. 



named was organized for the purpose of determination of " what 

 variations were possible in the style of bouquets worn at the royal 

 courts." Then followed the establishment of the gardens at Gies- 

 sen in 1605, Strasburg in 1G20, Jena in 1629, Oxford in 1632, Upsala 

 in 1667, and Chelsea in 1680. 



The Oxford garden is the oldest in England, and a curious 

 feature in its organization is that during its entire term of exist- 

 ence two hundred and sixty-four years it has occupied leased 

 ground. It owes its existence to the munificence of the Earl of 

 Danby, who, besides making such alterations in the surface as 

 to secure it from overflow, erected the wall that still incloses it, 

 at a cost of five thousand pounds. The portion of the garden 



