A significant proof of the widespread interest in natural history is
found in the zeal which showed itself at an early period for the
collection and comparative study of plants and animals. Italy claims to
be the first creator of botanical gar dens, though possibly they may
have served a chiefly practical end, and the claim to priority may be
itself disputed. It is of far greater importance that princes and
wealthy men, in laying out their pleasure-gardens, instinctively made a
point of collecting the greatest possible number of different plants in
all their species and varieties. Thus in the fifteenth century the
noble grounds of the Medicean Villa Careggi appear from the
descriptions we have of them to have been almost a botanical garden,
with countless specimens of different trees and shrubs. Of the same
kind was a villa of the Cardinal Trivulzio, at the beginning of the
sixteenth century, in the Roman Campagna towards Tivoli, with hedges
made up of various species of roses, with trees of every description--
the fruit-trees especially showing an astonishing variety--with twenty
different sorts of vines and a large kitchen-garden. This is evidently
something very different from the score or two of familiar medicinal
plants which were to be found in the garden of any castle or monastery
in Western Europe.
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