Botany

• There was a huge interest in botany in this period. Particularly through the long eighteenth century, the fashion for collecting, documenting and categorising botanical and natural objects became increasingly widespread. The expansion of global trading networks also led many European medical practitioners to join the crews of trading ships in order to collect and document natural specimens and plants from different areas of the globe. This period also saw an increase in botanical gardens being cultivated across Britain, Europe, and even places like Calcutta, which incorporatedlocal and exotic plants.
• The desire of the leading physicians in Edinburgh to establish a physic garden around 1670 was an important contributing factor to the foundation of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburghin 1681. At this time the study of botany and anatomy were considered the two core subjects in medicine. As the already established Royal College of Surgeons dealt with anatomy it was in the physician’s interest to develop the area of botany.