Abstract
How many persons pass daily by the modest botanical garden in Swan Walk, Chelsea, in blissful ignorance of its origin, its antiquity, and the romance attached to it. Dr. Drewitt's charming little work would tell them that it was established about 1673 by the Society of Apothecaries in order that their apprentices might make themselves familiar with the plants used in medicine that, later on, they would be prescribing for their patients. It would give them an insight into the separation of the Apothecaries from the Grocers, of the opposition the new Company had to face, the vicissitudes through which it had to pass, and the sacrifices it had to make to maintain its garden. Dr. Drewitt has understood how to weave into his account much of the changes that London and the surrounding villages have undergone during the last three centuries. He tells us of Johnson, Miller, Sir Hans Sloane, Sir Joseph Banks, and other celebrated men who did so much for the Garden, which attained so high a reputation that, as a letter written by a friend of Linnaeus to Miller when curator clearly shows, it was the Apothecaries' Garden which brought Linnaeus to London. The second edition of the book contains many additional details concerning the history of the trees in the Garden, so that even any one accustomed to use it for the purposes of study will take a far greater and more intelligent interest in it. The book is most fascinating, and can be read again and again with pleasure and profit.
The Romance of the Apothecaries' Garden at Chelsea.
Dr.
F. Dawtrey
Drewitt
By. Second edition. Pp. 136 + 15 plates. (London and Sydney: Chapman and Dodd, Ltd., 1924.) 5s. net.
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The Romance of the Apothecaries' Garden at Chelsea . Nature 115, 189 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/115189b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/115189b0