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BOTANIC GARDEN 



BOTANIC GARDEN 



Gardens, near Ixmdon, the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, 

 the Berlin Botanic Garden, at Dahlem, the New York 

 Botanical Garden, in Bronx Park, the Missouri Botani- 

 cal Garden, St. Louis, the Botanic Garden of the 

 Imperial University, at Tokyo, Japan, and the new 

 Brooklyn Botanic Garden. 



It has already been implied above that the early 

 study of botany was closely connected with the use of 

 plants for medicine, gardens being largely, or even 

 exclusively, devoted to growing medicinal herbs. In 

 this connection it is interesting to note that while the 

 staple food, fodder, and fiber plants are grown as crops, 

 pharmacists and physicians have, with few exceptions, 

 such as the opium-poppy and the ginseng, always 

 depended upon wild plants. This practice of gathering 

 only wild herbs doubtless accounts in large part for the 

 well-known and, until recent date, quite general adul- 

 teration of drugs. 



The total number of botanic gardens outside the 

 United States is approximately 325. In our own coun- 

 try there are about sixteen, eleven of which are college 

 and university gardens. The following foreign gardens 

 are referred to in the order of their establishment. 



Foreign gardens. 



1. Pisa, Italy, founded in 1543, by order of the 

 Grand Duke Cosmo de Medici I. The second director 

 of this garden was Csesalpino, after whom the legumi- 

 nous genus Csesalpinia, was named. This was one of 

 the earliest gardens devoted to the public study of 

 botany. 



2. Museum d'Histroire Naturelle, Paris, founded in 

 1635 by Guy de la Brosse, physician to the king. Its 

 first name was Jardin Royal des Plantes Medicinales, 

 which was changed to the present name in 1790. The 

 gardens proper occupy 14 hectares out of a total of 23. 



3. Chelsea Physic Garden, London. Established by 

 the Society of Apothecaries, in 1673, for the stated pur- 

 pose of furthering the teaching of botany, and of pro- 

 viding material and opportunity for botanical research. 

 The educational and scientific influence of this garden 

 can hardly be overestimated. It was founded by the 

 Society of Apothecaries of London, in 1606, and origi- 

 nally comprised the Grocers' Company, an ancient 

 guild. In 1617 a new charter was granted by James I, 

 and the Society of Apothecaries became separate from 

 the Grocers' Company. From the start the Society was 

 active in advancing botanical knowledge, and soon 

 after its incorporation, field trips, called "herbarizings," 

 were held at irregular intervals, and to these irregular 

 trips a regular annual one was added about 1633. The 

 botanical interests and activities of the Society found 

 natural expression in 1673 in the establishment of the 

 Physic Garden. At first the ground was utilized not 

 only for growing specimens for scientific study, but also 

 for growing crops of medicinal plants sufficient to fur- 

 nish crude drugs for the commercial use of the Society. 

 However, when Sir Hans Sloan, in 1722, deeded to the 

 Society additional ground, adjacent to the original 4 

 acres of the garden, in the terms of the deed was a pro- 

 hibition of this practice, and the garden became from 

 thenceforth devoted to investigation and instruction. 



The garden entered upon a new epoch with the 

 appointment, as "gardener," of Philip Miller, well 

 known as the author of the classic Dictionary of 

 Gardening." The title of "gardener" was subsequently 

 changed to "curator." In 1681 steps were taken toward 

 the development of a botanical library, which, by 1769, 

 contained about 300 bound and unbound books, deal- 

 ing chiefly with botany. In 1835 John Lindley was 

 appointed Director of the Garden. 



It was in. connection with the Society's endeavor to 

 grow successfully plants that could be grown only with 

 difficulty or not at all in the smoky atmosphere of Lon- 

 don that the well-known "Wardian case" was devised, 

 by Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward, Fellow of the Royal 



Society, and a friend and patron of the Physic Garden. 

 These "closely-glazed cases" were first described by 

 Ward in a letter to Sir William Hooker, dated 1834, and 

 published in the "Companion to the Botanical Maga- 

 zine," in May, 1836. It was also found possible, by 

 employing these cases, to ship living plants across the 

 tropics from the southern to the northern hemisphere 

 with the loss of scarcely a plant, whereas, under former 

 methods of shipment many more plants perished than 

 survived. 



Among many important publications growing out of 

 the work of the Chelsea Physic Garden or produced by 

 members of its staff, may be mentioned Curtis's "Lin- 

 nseus's System of Botany," and his "Botanical Maga- 

 zine," and "Flora Londonensis;" Lindley's "Flora 

 Medica," and Lindley and Moore's "Treasury of Bot- 

 any;" Miller's "Gardeners' Dictionary," mentioned 

 above; and Hudson's "Flora Anglica." In 1902 a well- 

 appointed laboratory building was opened in the gar- 

 den. In this building are two small rooms which con- 

 tain the private library of Charles Darwin. The library 

 equipment is used by students of the Royal College of 

 Science, and the Professor of Botany of the college is 

 Scientific Advisor to the Committee of Management. 

 The garden is used freely and largely by teachers with 

 classes, and living material for class study is supplied 

 in quantity to the University of London, the Royal 

 College of Science, and other local schools. 



4. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London (1759). 

 The present gardens resulted from the fusion of two 

 royal estates, the Richmond Gardens and the original 

 Kew Gardens. Richmond Gardens, composing the west- 

 ern portion of modern Kew, were the grounds of the 

 royal residence of Edward I. The second half was the 

 private grounds of Kew House. Lord Capel, who, by 

 marriage, came into possession of Kew House in 1696, 

 was greatly interested in the cultivation of plants, ana 

 his collections formed the nucleus of the modern Kew 

 plantations. The property was leased to Frederick, 

 Prince of Wales, about 1730, and after his death, his 

 widow, Princess Augusta of Saxe Gotha engaged, in 

 1759, William Aiton, a former pupil at the Chelsea gar- 

 den, to establish a physic garden: its rank as a true 

 botanic garden may be considered to date from this 

 year. The union of Richmond and Kew was effected 

 in 1802. 



Under Aiton was inaugurated the plan of sending out 

 expeditions for botanical exploration in foreign coun- 

 tries, a practice which has greatly enriched the her- 

 barium and living collections, and which has been car- 

 ried out on a large scale and with similar results in 

 America by the New York Botanical Garden. Perre'des 

 states that the specimen on which L'H6ritier founded 

 the genus Eucalyptus was collected on one of these 

 expeditions to the Cape in 1772. In 1789 Aiton pub- 

 lished his now classic "Hortus Kewensis." He was suc- 

 ceeded in the directorship by his son William T. Aiton, 

 and the latter, in 1841, by Sir William J. Hooker, 

 although Aiton retained directorship of the pleasure- 

 grounds until 1845. 



Hooker's aims were to make Kew so attractive as to 

 create in the general public an interest in plants, to 

 advance pure and applied botany, and to train col- 

 lectors and gardeners. The area of the garden has 

 increased from 15 acres, when Sir William Hooker 

 became director, to about 95 acres at the present time. 

 The former pleasure-grounds are now developed and 

 known as the Arboretum. In 1875, on the retire- 

 ment of Sir J. D. Hooker, who succeeded his father in 

 1865, Sir William Turner Thistle-Dyer was appointed 

 director. The present director is Lieut.-Col. Sir David 

 Prain, 



In scientific matters the power of the Director of 

 Kew is absolute, but in matters of administration, he 

 is under the governmental Board of Agriculture. The 

 library consists of about 20,000 volumes, over one-half 



