Show the first botanic gardens after the discovery of the medical properties of plants it must have followed in course of time that representatives of the species to which remedial properties were attributed should be collected and grown in bamo bomo conveniently and readily accessible as need demanded the last step did not immediately follow however since among the conditions which were earlier supposed to influence the potency of medicinal herbs the locality in which grown and the mysteries attending their collection were of the greatest importance the first authentic record of the introduction of medicinal plants into cultivated plots of ground dates no farther back than the time of the elder 33 79 A D who writes of the garden of antonins castor at rome in which were grown a large number of medicinal plants this step may have been taken much earlier by the greeks chinese or mexicans however later the benedictine monks of northern italy paid great attention to the growing of remedial herbs and devoted an important proportion of the monastery gardens to this purpose this practice was also carried beyond tho alps and in 1020 a garden was in existence at the monastery of st gall in switzer land a few kilometers distant from lake constance which contained 16 plots occupied by medicinal plants A garden of this character was founded in 1309 at salerno and another in venice in 1330 in 1809 the benedictine monks founded an academy called civitts Ci vitas hippocrat ica at monto bassino Oas sino in campania which appears to the writer to bo among tho earliest schools if not the first school of medicine and established in connection with it a physics garden science |