The Establishment of Calcutta Botanic Garden: Plant Transfer, Science and the East India Company, 1786–1806

2006 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian P. Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
East India Company ◽  
Considerable Importance ◽  
Western Science ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Botanic Garden ◽  
Scientific Institution ◽  
Plant Transfer ◽  
Royal Botanic Gardens ◽  
Garden Plant

AbstractCalcutta Botanic Garden occupies a prime riverside site three miles downstream from the centre of Calcutta. It is most famous as the home of the world's largest tree, a vast spreading banyan. Its grand avenues, named after its founders and the fathers of Indian botany, convey something of its former glory. In the nineteenth century it was the greatest of all the colonial botanic gardens and an important scientific institution; two of its superintendents were knighted and one went on to become Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, the very centre of the imperial botanical network. The Garden is of considerable importance as it was one of the earliest institutions in India based on western science. This survey will look at the reasons for its foundation, and how it successfully established itself in its first twenty years.

The identity of John Rattray, diatomist and collector on the Buccaneer expedition (1885–1886) to West Africa

Phytotaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 408 (4) ◽  
pp. 296-300
Author(s):  
ESTRELA FIGUEIREDO ◽  
DAVID WILLIAMS ◽  
GIDEON F. SMITH
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Royal Botanic Garden ◽  
West African ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Botanic Garden ◽  
The West ◽  
West African Coast ◽  
African Coast ◽  
Royal Botanic Gardens ◽  
The 19Th Century

Herbarium records show that during the second half of the 19th century John Rattray collected several plant specimens at ports of call along the West African coast (Canary Islands, Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ghana, São Tomé, Príncipe, and Angola). At the herbarium (K) of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England, four such specimens are databased, three of which can be examined online. At the herbarium (E) of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, Scotland, 26 specimens are databased, twenty of which are imaged. All the specimens we examined have printed labels stating ‘Collected by John Rattray, H.M. Challenger Commission, Edinburgh’ with only a handwritten indication of the locality, for example ‘Loanda’ (Luanda, Angola). The collecting date has been omitted from the labels and there are no further details on the specimens. An investigation of the literature revealed that there is some confusion regarding the origin of the material and the identity of John Rattray, the collector.

Exchange of useful plants between Brazil and England in the second half of the nineteenth century: Glaziou and the botanists of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Kew Bulletin ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariana Reis de Brito ◽  
Eimear Nic Lughadha ◽  
Luiz Fernando Dias Duarte ◽  
Luci de Senna-Valle
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Useful Plants ◽  
Royal Botanic Gardens

scholarly journals The Northern Lads :

2013 ◽  
pp. 109-123
Author(s):  
Ron McEwen
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Botanic Garden ◽  
Royal Botanic Gardens ◽  
Disproportionate Number

It is well known that a disproportionate number of plant collectors for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in the late 18th and 19th centuries were Scottish gardeners. Another important source of plants for Kew in its early days were the specialist London plant nurseries that were run by Scots. Less well known is the preponderance of Scots found in other areas of Kew’s work – gardeners in charge of the botanic garden, curators of various departments and gardeners who transferred to colonial botanic gardens. This Scottish phenomenon was not unique to Kew: it was found in other botanical and non-botanical institutions in London and the provinces. This paper charts the extent of the phenomenon and, on the basis of 18th- and 19th-century sources, analyses its causes.

scholarly journals John Christopher Willis 1868-1958

1958 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 353-359
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Rio De Janeiro ◽  
Royal Botanic Garden ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Botanic Garden ◽  
Botany Department ◽  
Linnean Society ◽  
University College ◽  
Royal Botanic Gardens

John Christopher Willis was bom at Birkenhead on 20 February 1868. He studied at University College, Liverpool, and at Cambridge and for a time was an assistant in the Botany Department at Glasgow. In 1896, he was appointed director of the Royal Botanic Garden, Peradeniya, Ceylon, and held the post for 15 years. From 1912 to 1915 he was director of the Botanic Garden at Rio de Janeiro and after his retirement he worked at Cambridge and later went to live at Les Terrages, Avenue des Alpes, Montreux, Switzerland, where he died on 21 March 1958. He married Minnie, daughter of T. Baldwin, in 1897, and she died in 1931. There were three daughters of the marriage. He was an M.A. and Sc.D.(Cantab.), and was given an honorary S.D. by Harvard. He was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1897 and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1919. The Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya , was a periodical founded by him, volume 1 part 1 appearing on 27 June 1901. Willis contributed very largely to the earlier volumes and edited volumes 1 to 4 inclusive, to 1910, and volume 5, parts 1 to 3, to December 1911. He was also editor of The Empire Cotton Growing Review from vol. 1, 1924 to vol. 16, 1939.

scholarly journals A synoptical account of the Sterculiaceae in Bangladesh

2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-78
Author(s):  
M. Oliur Rahman ◽  
Md. Abul Hassan ◽  
Md. Manzurul Kadir Mia ◽  
Ahmed Mozaharul Huq
Keyword(s):  
British Museum ◽  
Royal Botanic Garden ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Botanic Garden ◽  
National Herbarium ◽  
Diagnostic Characteristics ◽  
The Family ◽  
Plant Taxon ◽  
Royal Botanic Gardens

Taxonomy, updated nomenclature and occurrence of the species belonging to the family Sterculiaceae in Bangladesh have been presented. Detailed herbarium study at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K), Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh (E), British Museum (BM), Bangladesh National Herbarium (DACB) and Dhaka University Salar Khan Herbarium (DUSH) has revealed the occurrence of 32 species under 15 genera of the Sterculiaceae in Bangladesh. The correct name, important synonym(s), salient diagnostic characteristics, specimens examined and distributional notes have been provided for each species. Dichotomous bracketed keys have also been presented for identification of genera and species.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjpt.v19i1.10943Bangladesh J. Plant Taxon. 19(1): 63-78, 2012 (June)

scholarly journals The Climate Change Alliance: botanic garden horticulturists as agents for change

2021 ◽  
pp. 95-122
Author(s):  
Peter Symes ◽  
Clare Hart
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Strategic Management ◽  
Climatic Changes ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Botanic Garden ◽  
Climate Change Risks ◽  
Royal Botanic Gardens

In 2016, the publication of the pioneering Landscape Succession Strategy heralded a horticultural response by Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria to climate change risks faced by their living collections. This initiative led to the botanical world’s first Climate Change Summit in 2018 and the subsequent establishment of the Climate Change Alliance for Botanic Gardens. This article describes some of the anticipated climatic changes facing the Melbourne Gardens site, the strategic management of collections when considering these challenges, and how other botanical organisations can benefit from this approach through collaboration and sharing of expertise.

scholarly journals Noted colonial German scientists and their contexts

2015 ◽  
Vol 127 (1) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Gabrielle L. McMullen
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
National Herbarium ◽  
Annual Dinner ◽  
Pharmaceutical Society ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
Royal Botanic Gardens

German scientists made substantial and notable contributions to colonial Victoria. They were involved in the establishment and/or development of some of the major public institutions, e.g. the Royal Society of Victoria, National Herbarium, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Museum Victoria, the Flagstaff Observatory for Geophysics, Magnetism and Nautical Science, the Pharmaceutical Society of Victoria and the Victorian College of Pharmacy. Further, they played a leading role not only in scientific and technological developments but also in exploration – Home has identified ‘science as a German export to nineteenth century Australia’ (Home 1995: 1). Significantly, an account of the 1860 annual dinner of the Royal Society of Victoria related the following comment from Dr John Macadam MP, Victorian Government Analytical Chemist: ‘Where would science be in Victoria without the Germans?’ (Melbourner Deutsche Zeitung 1860: 192). This paper considers key German scientists working in mid-nineteenth century Victoria and the nature and significance of their contributions to the colony.

A garden enclosed: botanical barter in Sydney, 1818–39

2000 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
JIM ENDERSBY
Keyword(s):  
Gift Exchange ◽  
Boundary Objects ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Botanic Garden ◽  
Scientific Institution ◽  
Financial Gain ◽  
Scientific Institutions ◽  
British Colonial

The creators of Sydney's botanic garden were a varied group of people with diverse agendas and interests, only some of whom saw themselves as men of science. While several were trying to advance botany, others were more concerned with self-advancement or financial gain. Yet they collaborated, almost unintentionally, to found Australia's first scientific institution. Exchanges of plants were crucial to forming and maintaining the relationships between these different figures. Studying these exchanges allows hitherto neglected figures to take their place in the garden's story alongside well-known ones. This study also takes issue with the notion that British colonial botanic gardens were established as part of a botanical empire, with Kew Gardens at its centre. It also seeks to extend Susan Leigh Star and James R. Griesemer's idea of ‘boundary objects’, by suggesting that relationships based on barter, gift-exchange or patronage rather than cash played a key role in mediating between the participants in colonial scientific institutions.

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