Still to come in the Hortus Camdenensis
Hortus Camdenensis is a work in progress and as research findings come to hand they will be added. Although much of the basic research has been done the category of Vegetables and other Esculents is far from complete. The more exotic esculents contained in the body of the Hortus are included, and so you will find cinnamon, rosemary, tea and coffee among other food stuffs, but you will not find carrots and peas. A large body of information is available but this awaits further research. These more common vegetables, but no less interesting for that, will be progressively added over the next year or so.
It has taken a long time to enter the nearly 3300 plants in the Hortus. Some of the plants entered early in the process are already in need of updating as a result of further research. This will also happen progressively.
All of the plants in the Hortus are allocated to one or more Categories (see About the Hortus for details). At the beginning we only used the categories used by William Macarthur in his Catalogues, i.e. Orchids, Herbaceous Plants, Bulbs and Tuberous-Rooted Plants, Conifers and Taxads, Trees and Shrubs and Plants Bearing Fruit. Well into the process of uploading individual plant data it was decided to expand the number of categories to reflect more closely the nature of the plants and the uses to which they were put. All plants have now been allocated to all the categories we thought appropriate but we are bound to have missed some. Please let us know of any that you find. In some cases plants are no longer used for a purpose that was one important. But if that purpose suggests a reason for its importation then it has been included. This really only affects the Categories of Medicinal Use and Industrial Use.
Written by
Colin Mills
Date published
Feb 14, 2009 - 06:14 PM
Date last edited
Aug 01, 2010 - 05:21 PM
