36 THE APOTHECARIES' GARDEN 



of a very different climate, should thrive here so 

 well, as without Pot or Green House to be 

 able to propagate itself by Layers this Spring. 

 Seeds sown last Autumn, have as yet thriven 

 very well, and are like to hold out." 



Next year Evelyn paid the Garden a visit. 

 He must have been looking at the foundations 

 of the Military Hospital close by, with its great 

 quadrangle, which Sir Christopher Wren was 

 copying from Cardinal Wolsey's " Tom Quad" 

 at Oxford. Hot-houses for plants from tropical 

 climates were being tried, and Evelyn wrote : 



" Aug. 7, 1685. I went to see Mr. Watts, 

 keeper of the Apothecaries' Garden of simples 

 at Chelsea, where there is a collection of 

 innumerable rarities of that sort ; particularly, 

 besides many rare annuals, the tree bearing 

 Jesuit's bark, which had done such wonders 

 in Quartan Agues what was very ingenious 

 was the subterranean heate, 1 conveyed by a 

 stove under the conservatory, all vaulted with 

 brick, so as he " (John Watts) " has the doors 

 and windows open in the hardest frosts, 

 secluding only the snow." 



The Garden Committee had done well. 

 It could have been no easy task to obtain " the 

 tree bearing the Jesuit's bark." 



The story of the search for cinchona trees 

 and seeds is as full of adventure as the search 

 for the Golden Fleece. Fate was persistently 



. 1 " An arrangement more efficient than the open fire-baskets 

 formerly in use at Oxford." Arthur W. Hill in Annals of Mis- 

 souri Botanical Garden, 1915. The " fire-basket " was on wheels, 

 contained burning charcoal, and was drawn to and fro in the 

 conservatory 



