|
|
|
|
|
Botanical Garden: A type of garden first planted in Italy - at Pisa in 1543 and Padua in 1545 - which began as a centre of teaching at a time when plants were the main source of medicinal drugs. The first English botanical garden was founded in Oxford in 1621, the first North American one, the Elgin Botanic Garden in New York, in 1801. The purpose of these gardens did not restrict their contents, for any new plant was considered worthy of study in case it turned out to be useful.
(source: Oxford Paperback Encyclopedia, © Oxford University Press 1998)
|
|
|