THE RUSHEY MEAD HIGH SCHOOL, LEICESTER, U.K. “FLOWERS BRING SMILES” CLASSES IX AND X Botanical gardens, in the modern sense, developed from Physic Garden whose main purpose was to cultivate herbs for medical use as well as research and experimentation. Such gardens have a long history. In Europe, for example, Aristotle (384 BCE – 322 BCE), the “Father of Biology” is said to have had a physic garden in the Lyceum at Athens, which was used for educational purposes and for the study of botany, and this was inherited, or possibly set up, by his pupil Theophrastus , the "Father of Botany " Botanical gardens are still being built, such as the first botanical garden in Oman , which will be one of the largest gardens in the world. Once completed, it will house the first large-scale cloud forest in a huge glasshouse . In India we have several Botanical Gardens, in which many medicinal plants ar...