10 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



the century the great gardens of Leyden and Montpellier 

 had been founded. 



Just as the travels of Lusitanus, Calceolari, Ghini, 

 Aldrovandi and others materially aided the extention and 

 enlargement of the gardens of Padua, Pisa and Bologna, 

 so in the north, through the efforts of Dodonaeus, Lobe- 

 lius and Clusius a medicinal garden was in 1577 founded 

 in connection with the famous university of Leyden at 

 the expense of the Municipal Council of the city. 



If Padua, Pisa and Bologna were the great botanical 

 schools of the east, as Leyden was that of the north, 

 Montpellier claimed the premier place in the west. The 

 names of the renowned botanists Puchs, Gesner, Clusius, 

 Lobelius and Bauhin appear on its list of students 

 although it did not succeed in retaining them amongst its 

 teachers. The new and already famous gardens of the 

 northern and eastern universities drew away the cream 

 of the botanical students from its halls. Montpellier 

 could not afford to be behind hand : it must needs have a 

 botanical garden also, and so there came into existence in 

 1596 a garden destined to eclipse even the most famous 

 of its predecessors in Holland and Italy. Por this reason 

 I have selected it for fuller description. Its founder was 

 Pierre Kicher de Belleval, a native of Picardy and graduate 

 of Montpellier University. At his instigation the Parlia- 

 ment of Languedoc granted permission and land to found 

 a garden in connection with the medical faculty of the 

 University. Belleval's chief aim, as he himself states, was 

 to cultivate plants both native and exotic, under conditions 

 similar to those of nature. He says, " J'ai execute vos 

 ordres et fonde sous le nom de Jardin royal, un etablisse- 

 ment digne d'un grand empire. II est divise en plusieurs 

 parties presentant chacune une exposition differente ; un 

 -monticule offre deux versants tournes 1'un vers le Sud ? 



