The Friends of Charles Darwin

As might be expected from a place that nurtured the young Charles Darwin, the [Cambridge Botanic G]arden has also evolved with vigour. Eight decades after its 1762 foundation, it moved to the present site under the direction of Darwin’s mentor, Professor of Botany John Stevens Henslow. Unlike its original incarnation, the professor’s new garden was conceived not as an adjunct of the medical school, but as a place where scientists (a term coined in Cambridge not long before) could study plants for their own sake.