3 i8 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 
days botany and medicine were closely entwined. Every 
botanical and horticultural work was occupied with the 
virtues and properties of plants, far more than their 
structural peculiarities, or their beauties of form or 
growth. Gerard, Johnson, and less well-known botanists, 
were herbalists and apothecaries, so it was only natural 
that the Worshipful Company of Apothecaries should 
be the founders of a garden. It was not the first of its 
kind in London, but it ranks now as the second oldest 
in England, as its predecessors in London, such as 
Gerard’s Garden in Holborn, and the Tradescants in 
Lambeth, have long since passed away. It probably, 
moreover, embodies the earlier one at Westminster, 
which was under the care of Hugh Morgan, said by his 
contemporaries to be a very skilful botanist. The West¬ 
minster Garden seems to have been still flourishing when 
the Apothecaries started theirs in Chelsea, but three years 
later it was bought by them, one of the conditions of sale 
being that the plants might be moved to Chelsea. The 
land in Chelsea was leased from Lord Cheyne. By the 
time the lease had expired, Sir Hans Sloane was owner of 
the property, having purchased it from Lord Cheyne 
in 1712. He granted the land to the Apothecaries’ 
Company on a yearly rent of £§, on condition that it 
should always be maintained as a Physic Garden, and 
certain other conditions, such as supplying a number 
of specimens to the Royal Society. The deed of gift 
further provided that should the Apothecaries not con¬ 
tinue to fulfil their obligation, the Garden should be held 
in trust by the Royal Society, and should they not wish 
to take it over, by the College of Physicians. It was 
acting in conformity with these wishes, that, when the 
Apothecaries ceased to desire to maintain it, the Charity 
