HERBACEOUS PLANTS 
203 
Medicinal 
Garden. 
which were those of Oxford and Chelsea — were originally termed 
“ physic gardens.” Their chief purpose was to supply material for 
the study and classification of plants used in medicine. 
The phj^sician of earlier times was much more of a 
herbalist than his modern compeer, and that he had an 
extraordinary faith in the efficacy of many plants is shown by the 
old herbals. It has always been, even up to recent times, from 
the medical ranks that botany has drawn its most ardent devotees. 
But botany is no longer an essential element in the educational out- 
fit of the physician. He may rest content, knowing the properties 
of his drugs, without concerning himself about their origin. 
Near to and slightly north of Museum II. (which stands at the 
northern end of the Herb Garden) is a sunken rectangular plot 
devoted exclusively to herbaceous plants known in medicine and 
in the household. They are arranged in rectangular and circular 
beds, intersected by grass alleys. It is a singular fact that the great 
majority of people are quite ignorant of the source of many of the 
commonest condiments, drugs, and the like. How many, for in- 
stance, know that caraway seeds, so largely used by housewives and 
confectioners for flavouring cakes, are the seeds of a plant now wild 
in Britain and allied to the hemlock ; or the source of peppermint, 
liquorice, or chicory ? In this little medicinal garden at Kew is 
grown as complete a collection of plants producing medicines, per- 
fumes, condiments, etc., as space will admit. Here one finds such 
well-known herbs as sweet marjoram, fennel, horehound, lovage, 
chamomile, lavender, and so on. 
Most of the space given up to hardy ferns at Kew is appro- 
priated by wild varieties and garden forms of British ferns. The 
great majority of these owe their existence in gardens 
to the exertions of a small band of enthusiasts who have 
made British ferns their special study, and who have 
searched assiduously for wild forms, as well as raised others in their 
own gardens. To one of them, the late Mr. W. C. Carbonell, of Rhiw 
Castle, Monmouthshire, Kew owes in a great measure the richness 
of its collection of British ferns. In 1887, he bequeathed to the nation 
the whole of his collection, consisting of over 4,000 specimens, 
many of them exceedingly rare. Most of these garden forms may 
be included under about eight species, and although they have been 
given Latin names of great length, it must be said that many of them 
Hardy 
Ferns. 
