Exotic Gardens

Botany — the science of the vegetable kingdom, is one of the most attractive, most useful, and most extensive departments of human knowledge. It is, above every other, the science of beauty.

~ Joseph Paxton

Beyond providing a source of food, cultivated plants have been used in the service of medicine. During the Renaissance, numerous detailed compendiums of medicinal plants were published throughout Europe. Known as herbals, these continued to be in vogue well into the Enlightenment. A Curious Herbal (1737), by Scottish illustrator Elizabeth Blackwell, which detailed the curative properties of newly discovered plants from the Americas, garnered her a commendation from The Royal College of Physicians.

Beginning in the 18th century, exploration across the globe resulted in an influx of novel forms of plant life to Europe. Newly identified plant species transformed European gardens into paradises of the exotic, an emerging aesthetic. With the Industrial Revolution (1760-1840), ornamental gardens were no longer restricted to the estates of royalty or aristocrats. Many would become renowned public institutions like Kew Gardens in London, originally part of the royal residences of the English monarchy. Exotic gardens also served as natural laboratories for botanical studies. Botanist Joseph Banks is credited with transforming Kew Gardens into a premier center for scientific investigation after returning from Captain James Cook's famous voyage across the South Pacific from 1768 to 1771.

Thomas Sandby, "View of Flower Garden and Aviary at Kew,"
plate from Plans, Elevations, Sections, and Perspective Views of the Gardens and Building of Kew. (1763).
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 25.19.39, Metropolitan Museum of Art