144 THE PLANT WOELD 



floras and botanical gardens soon began to give signs of the deep inter- 

 est felt in the study throughout civilized lands. 



The cultivation of plants for medicinal purposes dates as far back 

 as the elder Pliny, 23-79 A. D., who writes of the Garden of Antonius 

 Castor, at Rome. The Benedictine Monks of Northern Italy later grew 

 medicinal herbs in their gardens, and slowly the study and culture 

 spread northward to the Monastery of St. Gall, near Lake Constance, 

 Switzerland, in 1020. Another garden of this nature was formed at 

 Salerona, in 1309, and in Venice, in 1330. 



In 1309, the early Benedictine Monks founded an Academy of 

 Medicine, known as " Oivitas Hippocratica,'' at Monte Cassino, in Cam- 

 pania, Italy. This Academy is considered the first school connected 

 with a garden of medicinal plants. 



Botanical gardens strictly speaking were not organized until about 

 1545, in Padua, Italy ; at Pisa, in 1547, and at Bologna, in 1568 ; the latter 

 was under the directorship of Aldrovandi and Cesalpino later. 



Soon the northern parts of Europe awakened botanical research and 

 a garden was established at Leyden, in 1577, and another at Leipsic, in 

 1579, contained rare collections of living plants. 



Heidelberg and Montpellier also furnished gardens of note in 

 1596, while Paris established another in 1597. The Oxford Garden, the 

 oldest in England, was established about 1630, and has existed thus 272 

 years, andjwas organized through the efforts of the Earl of Danby. 



Among the earliest and most eminent students of botany, we find that 

 Leonard Euchs followed Otto Brunfels in 1535, and was the first to define 

 the parts of a flower. He published a system of botanical terminology 

 in 1542. He may be said to be the first to lecture on plants, dealing 

 with their virtues and structural parts, each bearing a descriptive name. 

 He was connected with Wiirtemberg University at Tiibingen, and lec- 

 tured frequently from 1535 to 1566. The botanical garden connected 

 with this school was not established until 1662, however, nearly a cen- 

 tury after the death of Prof. Fuchs. The latter figured about 500 

 species of plants in his " Historia SUrpium." Several genera were dis- 

 tinguished by him according to their natural afiinity. He studied plants 

 themselves and thus his quaint wood-cuts are valuable even at this day 

 His species were arranged in alphabetical order, however, and did not 

 conform to a definite system of classification. 



[to be continued.] 



