greater part of Europe. They had large orchards 

 for the raising of fruit, and either within the 

 monastic enclosure, or annexed to it, a large gar- 

 den for the cultivation of flowers, vines and the 

 higher plants that are useful in medicine ; gardens 

 which served alike as a place of recreation and for 

 the careful study of plant life as well as the making 

 of experiments, to which from their secluded lives 

 they were enabled to devote the necessary time. 



In addition to this, those of the brethren that 

 went out as missionaries to pagan lands, being from 

 their previous occupation more or less of botanists, 

 were close observers of the vegetation of the coun- 

 tries through which they passed, especially in the 

 then imperfectly known parts of Asia and northern 

 Africa, and when they found anything that was 

 new to them which they considered interesting or 

 useful and which they thought capable of being 

 cultivated in Europe, they brought back with them 

 seeds or specimens to be planted in gardens of their 

 own institution or at some other monastic establish- 

 ment where the atmospheric conditions were favor- 

 able, and in this way many of the best varieties of 

 fruit, especially of apples and pears, were introduced 

 into Europe. 



They did even more. They imparted the knowl- 

 edge they had acquired by their own experiments or 

 obtained from distant lands to the peasantry and 

 agricultural classes in their vicinity by making them 

 acquainted with new plants that could be raised for 



