4 o THE APOTHECARIES' GARDEN 



and out of greenhouses ; their perennial green 

 hedges and rows of different coloured herbs 

 are very pretty ; and so are the banks set with 

 shades of herbs in the Irish stitch way." One 

 of the old prints of the Garden shows what 

 was meant by " Irish stitch way." 



A few years later, Bowack, in a History of 

 Middlesex, wrote of Chelsea : " This happy 

 spot is likewise blest by Nature with a peculiar 

 kind of soil which produceth nine or ten rare 

 physical plants not found elsewhere in England, 

 and the Apothecaries' Garden here lying upon 

 the Thames side is a clear instance of the 

 opinion the learned Botanists of their Society 

 had of the aptitude of the soil for the nourish- 

 ment of the most curious plants." 



In 1693 it was again proposed to abandon 

 the Garden, and again the old botanists won 

 the day. Samuel Doody, an Apothecary, a 

 Fellow of a scientific society which Charles II 

 had just founded, and called the " Royal 

 Society," agreed to look after it. Doody 's 

 work as a botanist was praised by the great 

 Ray, and by Jussieu, the French Professor of 

 Botany. 



Then James Petiver, also a Fellow of the new 

 " Royal Society," became Demonstrator. He 

 lived until 1718, and his life was a full one. 

 He had a large practice as an Apothecary in 

 Aldersgate Street, and was Apothecary to St. 

 Bartholomew's Hospital, and to the Charter 

 House. He accumulated an extraordinary 

 Natural History collection, for which Sir Hans 

 Sloane offered 4,000. He helped Ray (who 

 speaks of him as " mei amicissimus") with his 



