22 
Gardens  of  Medicinal  Plants. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I     January,  1904. 
ever,  to  show  that  the  Romans  made  any  attempt  to  arrange  or  group 
plants  according  to  any  definite  system  or  to  give  the  gardens  any 
scientific  rank.  Useful  and  beautiful  plants  were  introduced  from 
other  countries  as  they  were  found  during  war-like  invasions.  No 
special  efforts  were  made  to  cultivate  plants  of  medicinal  value,  ex- 
cepting a  few  herbs  in  the  vicinity  of  temples  devoted  to  medicine, 
such  as  the  temples  dedicated  to  Esculapius. 
Through  Roman  influence  gardens  were  gradually  established 
throughout  Italy,  centuries  after  the  fall  of  Rome.  Like  the  Roman 
villa  gardens,  most  of  these  were  private  property.  In  fact,  nearly 
all  of  the  real  gardens  of  antiquity  were  the  pleasure  grounds  of 
opulent  mortals.  With  the  introduction  of  Christianity  the  polythe- 
istic temple  and  sacred  gardens  were  destroyed  or  neglected  or  some- 
times continued  as  gardens  of  the  monasteries  ;  the  gardens  of  burial 
grounds  continued  as  before.  The  similarity  between  the  Roman 
villa  gardens  and  the  later  gardens  of  Italian  baronial  castles  and 
gardens  of  the  monastic  establishments  of  the  Middle  Ages  is  very 
apparent.  According  to  Castellan  several  monasteries  were  built 
on  the  ruins  of  Roman  villas,  copying  the  ancient  grouping  of  build- 
ings, structure  of  porticoes,  terraces,  arcades  and  the  range  of  the 
gardens  and  pleasure  grounds,  etc. 
From  Italy  the  establishment  of  gardens  spread  northward  and 
westward.  There  is  a  very  close  similarity  between  the  Italian 
baronial  castles  and  those  of  northern  Europe  and,  as  in  the  past, 
the  private  gardens  of  the  nobility,  as  well  as  the  more  public  parks 
and  cemetery  gardens  were  essentially  for  pleasure  and  recreation 
rather  than  utility. 
The  statements  thus  far  made  with  regard  to  botanical  gardens  of 
antiquity  apply  not  only  to  the  countries  referred  to,  but  also  largely 
to  Asia,  Arabia  and  India.  Arabian  and  Chinese  physicians  have, 
however,  lor  many  centuries  given  some  attention  to  the  cultivation 
of  medicinal  plants,  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  Indian  priests, 
though  no  very  reliable  data  as  regards  the  scope  of  such  work  are 
obtainable.  Of  the  earlier  European  rulers  there  is  only  one,  namely, 
Karl  der  Grosse  (Charlemagne),  who  gave  considerable  attention  to 
the  introduction  and  cultivation  of  economic  plants,  including  med- 
icinal plants.  The  monks  of  the  dark  and  later  ages  apparently  had 
an  eye  to  utility,  and  they  gave  some  attention  to  the  cultivation  of 
medicinal  plants.    Heretofore  the  "  herb-gatherers  "  relied  almost 
