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History of the University and Colleges of Cambridge (1814)
History of the University and Colleges of Cambridge - 1814 Author:George Dyer Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAP. IV. BOTANIC GARDEN. A.MONG the English counties, Cambridgeshire had been long known as peculiarly favourable to botanic studies. Ray, our great Engli... more »sh botanist, (who began his researches at Cambridge,) long since remarked this; but it was not till the year 1763, that any plan was formed for a botanic garden. Ray, besides making inquiries in this county, had very early perambulated great part of England in search of plants. In 1660, he published his catalogue of plants that grow about Cambridge, and three years after, an appendix. In 1685, Mr. Dent, an apothecary of Cambridge, added to Mr. Ray's catalogue, a great many more. He was succeeded in the same walk, by Mr. Martyn, Miller, and Israel Lyons. The fasciculus plantarum of the latter was printed in 1763, as a specimen of a larger work. But after Ray, there were only titular professors of botany. Nothing was seriously done till the time of Mr. Martyn, who read lectures, and perambulated the county: and on his leaving Cambridge, Dr. Heber- den gave lectures on Botany in reference to medicine, as already has been shewn. Fascicului Plantarum circa Cantabrigiam nascentium, 1660. But in the year 1763, Dr. Walker, vice-master of Trinity College, with the assistance of Mr. Miller of Chelsea, formed a regular establishment. A mansion was bought, formerly a monastery of St. Augustine, of which there are still some remains, with a garden and five tenements in Pembroke lane, on the south-east side of the town, for l600l. These premises were given in trust to the University, for a public botanic garden, and Dr. W. left by will the chancellor trustee; in his absence, the vice-chancellor, the master of Trinity College, the provost of King's College, the master of St. John's College, and the professor of physic, and the...« less