THE APOTHECARIES' GARDEN 



CHAPTER I 



Existence of Apothecaries' Garden from time of the Stuarts. Bo- 

 tany closely connected with medicine. Apothecaries break away 

 from Grocers' Company; become a City Company. Grocers peti- 

 tion James I for the return of the Apothecaries The King's reply. 

 The Company at last recognized and welcomed by Lord Mayor. 

 Cobham House becomes Apothecaries' Hall. Blackfriars Theatre 

 next door. Johnson, editor of Gerard's Herball, tastes bananas, 

 organizes botanical excursions, dies fighting for King Charles. 

 Money troubles during Civil War. The Plague. The Fire of 

 London. Apothecaries' Hall rebuilt. 



IT is indeed a romance that, in spite of the 

 continual destruction of its old life by modern 

 London, spreading like a flood, submerging 

 and changing beyond recognition the face of 

 all the country it touches, the peaceful Garden 

 of the Apothecaries a living book on Botany 

 should still be teaching its students the 

 names and nature of plants, as it did in the 

 days of the Stuarts. 



It is fitting that it should be so, for botany 

 is a very ancient science. It was man's first 

 lesson in Nature study. His very existence 

 depended on his learning it. 



Poor primitive man ! as he crawled out of 



his cave at sunrise, with no anxiety for the 



morrow, and but slightly sensitive to cold and 



pain, he had to learn by hard experience that, 



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