PUBLISHED BY THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION 

 OF THE COLLEGE OF PHARMACY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 



Vol. III. 



New York, October, i896. 



BOTANICAL GARDENS-ORIGIN AND DfiVELOPMENT.* 



By Prof. N. L. BRITTON. 



No. lo. 



LIBRARY 

 NEW YORK 

 BOTANICAL 



OaROEN. 



The cultivation of plants within small 

 areas for their healing qualities by the 

 monks of the middle ages appears to 

 have been the beginning of the modern 

 botanical garden, although these me- 

 diaeval gardens doubtless took their 

 origin from others of greater antiquity. 

 Botanical gardens were thus primarily 

 formed for purely utilitarian purposes, 

 although the aesthetic study of planting 

 and of flowers must doubtless have ap- 

 pealed to their owners and visitors. 

 Their function as aids in scientific teach- 

 ing and research, the one which at pres- 

 ent furnishes the dominating reason for 

 their existence, did not develop much, if 

 at all, before the i6th century, and prior 

 to the middle of the 17th century a con- 

 siderable number existed in Europe in 

 which this function was recognized to a 

 greater or less degree, of which those at 

 Bologna, Montpellier, Leyden, Paris and 

 Upsala were, perhaps, the most note- 



worthy. The ornamental and decorative 

 taste for planting had meanwhile been 

 slowly gaining ground, as well as the 

 desire to cultivate rare or unusual species, 

 and during the i8th century attained a 

 high degree of development. Many per- 

 sons of wealth and influence fostered this 

 taste and became, through the employ- 

 ment of men skilled in botany and horti- 

 culture, generous patrons of science. 

 The world was searched for new and 

 rare plants, which were brought home 

 to Europe for cultivation, and many 

 sumptuous volumes, describing and de- 

 lineating them, were published, mainly 

 through the same patronage. The older 

 gardens were essentially private institu- 

 tions, but as the rights of the people be- 

 came more and more recognized, many 

 existing establishments and an increas- 

 ing number of newly founded ones be- 

 came, to a greater or less extent, open to 

 the public, either through an admittance 



* Vice-Presideutial address before Section G, American Association for the Advancement of Science. Buffalo. 

 N. Y., August 24. 1896. 



