Muelleria 35 : 43-93 ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS VICTORIA The origins of botanic gardens and their relation to plant science, with special reference to horticultural botany and cultivated plant taxonomy Roger Spencer and Rob Cross Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Birdwood Avenue, Melbourne, Victoria 3004, Australia; roger.spencer@rbg.vic.gov.au On ne connaitpas complement une science tant qu'on n'en saitpas I'histoire Cours de Philosophie Positive 1835; Auguste Comte (1798-1857) Introduction Botanicgardensareversatileinstitutionswhoseobjectivesdependon both local circumstances, and the more general social, economic and environmental needs and concerns of the day. As they are diverse and evolvinginstitutions,theprovisionofapreciseformaldefinitionwould be both contentious and misleadingly prescriptive. The oldest existing botanic gardens date back to the early modern period, to the educational physic gardens associated with the medical faculties of universities in 16th-century Renaissance Italy.Today's botanic gardens have little todowiththese early andhighly specialisedmedicinal gardens whose narrowacademic and scientific goals and formal designs have subsequently taken on additional economic, environmental, aesthetic and other values. Collectively the world's botanical gardens havecometoreflectthemany-sidedrelationshipbetweenhumansand plantsand,thoughscienceprovidesacommonunderlyingtheme,they may emphasise other objectives and social values. Abstract This paper explores the origin and development of botanic gardens including consideration of the beginnings of plant cultivation and domestication and the emergence of botanical science. We suggest that the origins, history and functions of modern botanic gardens pre-date the European Renaissance and that they reflect the social, economic and environmental circumstances of their times. © Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria 2017 ISSN: 0077-1813 (print) ■ ISSN: 2204-2032 (online)