[3] The naturalist William Turner established physic gardens at Cologne, Wells, and Kew; he also wrote to Lord Burleigh recommending that a physic garden be established at Cambridge University with himself at its head.
The 1597 Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes by herbalist John Gerard was said to be the catalogue raisonné of physic gardens, both public and private, which were instituted throughout Europe.
[5] It listed 1,030 plants found in his physic garden at Holborn, and was the first such catalogue printed.
[1] The garden in Oxford, founded by Henry Danvers, 1st Earl of Danby, with Jacob Bobart the Elder as Superintendent, dates to 1632.
By 1676, the position of "Keeper of the Physic Garden" was held by the Professor of Botany at the University of Edinburgh.