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A physic garden is a type of herb
garden with medicinal plants.
Botanical gardens developed from them.
History
Modern botanical gardens were preceded by medieval physic gardens, often
monastic gardens, that existed by 800 at least.[2] Gardens of this time included various sections including one for
medicinal plants called the herbularis or hortus medicus.[3]Pope Nicholas V set aside part of the Vatican grounds in 1447 for a garden of medicinal plants that were used to promote the teaching of botany, and this was a forerunner to the academic botanical gardens at
Padua and
Pisa established in the 1540s.[4] Certainly the founding of many early botanic gardens was instigated by members of the medical profession.[3]
The naturalist
William Turner established physic gardens at
Cologne,
Wells, and
Kew; he also wrote to
Lord Burleigh recommending that a physic garden be established at
Cambridge University with himself at its head. The 1597 Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes by herbalist
John Gerard was said to be the catalogue raisonné of physic gardens, both public and private, which were instituted throughout Europe.[5] It listed 1,030 plants found in his physic garden at
Holborn, and was the first such catalogue printed.[1]
^
abAmerican Medical Association; HighWire Press (10 July 1915).
"A History of Botanic Gardens". JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association. 65 (2) (Public domain ed.). American Medical Association.: 170–.
doi:
10.1001/jama.1915.02580020036016. Retrieved 7 January 2012.