Systematic Beds and Rising Path

Devised in 1845 by the Garden’s first Curator, Andrew Murray, the Systematic Beds serve as a teaching resource to demonstrate the relationship between temperate herbaceous species and families to University students. Murray set out to represent plant classification as described by the Swiss botanist Augustin de Candolle, who recognised that plant families fell into two groups: those having one seed leaf (monotyledons), which are grown in the central oval, and those with two seed leaves seed leaf (dicotyledons), which are shown in the outer segments.  In designing these beds to demonstrate botany and taxonomy, Murray also produced a unique layout and concept for family order beds. Murray’s design appears at first glance to be chaotic, in contrast to the formality of the rectilinear order beds which exist in other botanic gardens, but closer study reveals the relationship between neighbouring plants and families.