54 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Many of the botanical gardens, which undoubtedly have spread the 

 knowledge of useful plants, have been started and presided over by 

 members of the profession. Thus the justly celebrated Botanic Gardens 

 at Edinburgh were founded by Sir Andrew Balfour in 1689, and the 

 Directors, ever since, have been members of the medical profession. Dr. 

 J. H. Balfour founded the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, whose members 

 have done, and are still doing, good botanical and horticultural work in 

 various parts of the world. Dr. Walter Wade, who was Professor of 

 Botany to the Royal Dublin Society, caused the establishment of the 

 Royal Botanic Gardens at Dublin in 1790, and his work on the cultiva- 

 tion of willows is still a valuable book of reference. 



Dr. James Lawson Drummond was one of the founders of the Belfast 

 Botanic Gardens in 1821, and Dr. Andrew Duncan founded the Caledonian 

 Horticultural Society and established a public experimental garden, and 

 there are few, if any, of the botanical gardens in the world which have 

 not at present, or have not had in the past, some member of the medical 

 profession as Director, or Curator, or Superintendent. 



As connecting the past with the present, the old Physic Garden of 

 Chelsea, formerly belonging to the Apothecaries' Company, is one of the 

 most interesting of the old gardens of London. It dates back to 1673, and 

 probably at one tirfie contained the plants from the physic gardens at 

 Westminster, which had been well furnished by Hugh Morgan, Queen 

 Elizabeth's apothecary, and also those from his private physic garden near 

 Coleman Street, which it is believed were also removed to Chelsea. At 

 first the garden was leased to the Apothecaries' Company at a rental of 

 £5 per annum, but when Sir Hans Sloane acquired the land at Chelsea on 

 part of which the Physic Garden stood, he gave the site to the Company 

 on the consideration that it should always be kept as a physic garden, and 

 that the Company should present fifty new plants annually to the Royal 

 Society, of which he was the President, until the number reached 2,000. 

 This direction was complied with until 1773, by which date 2,550 new 

 species had been presented. This is the only one remaining intact of the 

 old physic gardens of London, and in conjunction with the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens at Regent's Park, has supplied for many years the lecturers on 

 botany at the London Hospitals with specimens to illustrate their 

 lectures. 



A few years ago the Apothecaries' Company found it impracticable to 

 supply the necessary funds to keep it up, and as under these conditions 

 the ground would have reverted to the Cadogan family, and probably soon 

 have become a pr3y to the builder, the responsibility of its upkeep was 

 undertaken by the London Parochial Charities, and only last year it 

 started on a new lease of life, as a place for the practical teaching of 

 Botanical Biology. 



The Royal Pleasure Gardens at Kew formerly contained a physic garden, 

 which was initiated by the Princess Augusta of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who 

 engaged William Aiton, a pupil of Philip Miller, the most celebrated of all 

 the gardeners (Hortulanorum Princeps) of the Chelsea Physic Garden, 

 to establish a physic garden at Kew. During the reign of George III., 

 under the powerful influence of Sir Joseph Banks, its scientific character 

 was developed, but during the two next reigns Royalty took but little 



