OF PHYSIC GARDENS 17 



made into any knowledge of our native flora; and 

 the special business, even from the beginning, of 

 the physic garden had apparently less to do with 

 the discovery of the properties of plants than of 

 their varied genera and species. 



The annals of the old garden are very pleasant 

 reading more particularly, perhaps, to the botan- 

 ist, but also to any garden lover.* Many private 

 gardens, more or less renowned, were by that 

 time in existence, especially in London and its 

 outskirts, where great collections of plants were 

 being brought together. Gerard himself had been 

 in charge of Lord Burleigh's London botanic gar- 

 den ; Dr Grindall, while Bishop of London, had 

 begun, and his successor Dr Sheldon had added 

 to the fine collection of trees at Fulham. Myrtles, 

 a great rarity, were " nourished in a gentlewoman's 

 garden in the village of Westminster," and green 

 fields occupied what is now the heart of London. 

 Memories of some of these once famous gardeners 

 linger about the Oxford garden, which became 

 necessarily in those days the focus of the most 

 trustworthy scientific knowledge of plants. Chief 

 amongst these, perhaps, was Dr William Sherard, 

 who bequeathed his collections of plants living 

 and dried, which were renowned throughout 

 Europe, to the physic garden, and whose memory 

 is perpetuated in the Sherardian Professorship of 

 Botany which he endowed. The first name which 

 modern plant-lovers will recognise is that of John 

 Tradescant, gardener to the king, whose own gar- 

 den at Lambeth was of good repute, and who was 



* See Druce's "Flora of Oxfordshire " (Clarenden Press, 1886). 

 B 



