424  Early  Botanical  and  Herb  Gardens,  {^pimberam" 
tory.  About  1822  the  Harvard  Botanical  Garden  was  placed  in 
charge  of  Thomas  Nuttall,  an  Englishman  by  birth,  who  did  much 
to  develop  a  widespread  interest  in  American  botany. 
Thomas  Nuttall,  born  in  England  in  1 786,  came  to  America,  when 
about  twenty-two  years  of  age.  He  had  been  apprenticed  to  a  printer 
and  during  his  sojourn  in  Philadelphia  worked  at  that  trade  occa- 
sionally for  a  livelihood.  It  is  said  that  he  himself  set  the  greater 
part  of  the  type  for  his  book,  "  The  Genera  of  North  American 
Plants,  and  a  Catalogue  of  the  Species  to  the  year  1 817,"  which  was 
published  in  1818.  Nuttall  lectured  on  botany  in  1822,  and  at  the. 
end  of  that  year  was  appointed  curator  of  the  botanic  garden  at 
Harvard,  where  he  remained  for  upwards  of  ten  years. 
Nuttall  subsequently  made  an  extensive  trip  through  the  Western 
country  and  devoted  an  extended  stay  in  Philadelphia  to  a  critical 
study  of  his  rich  collection  of  indigenous  plants.  He  sailed  for 
England  in  1841  and  died  September  10,  1859. 
After  the  accession  of  Asa  Gray  as  Professor  of  Botany  at  Har- 
vard, the  botanical  garden  rapidly  developed,  and,  owing  perhaps 
to  the  scientific  attainments  of  the  director,  even  attracted  consider- 
able attention  abroad. 
What  is  known  to  have  been  strictly  an  herb  garden  was  in  exist- 
ence for  many  years,  in  Philadelphia,  in  connection  with  the  Friends' 
Almshouse.  This  institution,  made  immortal  by  Longfellow's 
"  Evangeline,"  was  founded  in  the  early  decades  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  on  a  plot  of  ground  that  was  left  to  members  of  the  Society 
of  Friends  by  John  Martin,  a  well-to-do  tailor,  who  died  without 
immediate  family.  The  institution  consisted  of  a  number  of  cottages  ; 
the  first  of  these  was  erected  in  17 13,  and  the  large  front  building, 
sometimes  called  the  Quaker  Nunnery,  was  built  in  1729.  The 
institution  had  an  uninterrupted  existence  of  more  than  a  century 
and  has  frequently  been  referred  to  in  song  and  in  story.  For  many 
decades  the  grounds  surrounding  the  cottages  were  largely,  if  not 
entirely,  devoted  to  the  cultivation  of  medicinal  herbs.  These  herbo 
acquired  considerable  reputation  and  for  many  years  were  eagerly 
sought  for  as  being  the  finest  and  most  desirable  that  were  to  be  had. 
During  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  cultivation  of 
medicinal  herbs,  in  a  commercial  way,  appears  to  have  attracted 
considerable  attention.  This  is  particularly  evidenced  by  the  space 
that  is  devoted  to  the  directions  for  cultivating  medicinal  plants,  in 
