scholarly journals Corylus L. specimen’s conservation and reproduction in the botanic gardens and dendrological parks: an example of Corylus chinensis Franch.

2021 ◽  
pp. 166-174
Author(s):  
I. S. Kosenko ◽  
O. A. Balabak ◽  
O. A. Opalko ◽  
V. M. Oksantiyk ◽  
A. I. Opalko ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dna Analysis ◽  
Clonal Selection ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Botanical Garden ◽  
Morphological Features ◽  
Hybrid Origin ◽  
Oilseed Crop ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Royal Botanic Gardens ◽  
Species Specific

Aim. Value of cultivated Corylus L. as a fruit, ornamental and oilseed crop with prospects for use in the food industry, feed production and pharmacy are grown under the hazelnut name, makes it necessary to improve the methods of conservation and reproduction of Corylus spp., which can be valuable sources of initial material for breeding. Involvement in a hybridization of the well-known cultivars of hazelnuts with Chinese hazel (C. chinensis Franch.) contributed to the cre- ation of several new cultivars, in particular ‘Sofiyivsky 1’ (‘Ukraine-50’×C. chinensis), Sofiyivsky 2’ (‘Dar Pavlenka’×C. chinensis), and ’Sofiyivsky 15’ (‘Garibaldi’×C. chinensis). However, in the process of studying the morphological features   of C. chinensis from the collection of NDP “Sofiyivka” and analysis of the effectiveness of its interspecific interbreeding with other Corylus revealed their differences from the data given in the literature sources, which initiated our research. Materials and methods. Study of species-specific features of C. chinensis, hybridization, progeny analysis, clonal selection, propagation of selected seedlings, and generalization of the observations were performed using commonly used methods. Results and discussion. Comparison of morphological features of the C. chinensis imported from the Berlin Botanical Garden (Botanischer Garten Berlin-Dahlem) and its vegetative descendants with descriptions and photos given in the online database founded by the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (Great Britain), showed the similarity of features of leaves, bark, and trunk with incomplete similarity of the infructescence, its shape, and downiness. It may indicate a hybrid origin of the introduced plant (Corylus…, 2017). The obtained data related to the value of C. сhinensis in hybridization with hazelnut cultivars using its male parent contradict the literature data that report on successful hybridization in direct combinations of C. chinensis×C. avellana and the incompatibility of these species in reciprocal crossing. Conclusions. It was found that the studied C. chinensis plants of generative age generally correspond to the descriptions of the species given in scientific sources and the electronic databases “Plants of the world Online” and “World Flora Online” in their morphological characteristics. However, the identified certain discrepancies indicate the need to continue their study, and the study of the others obtained from native sources of C. chinensis representatives, cultivars, and numerous interspecific hybrids using molecular and genetic DNA analysis methods.

scholarly journals Safeguarding Wild Plant Genetic Resources of Georgia within the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Tsira Mikatadze-Panstulaia ◽  
Sandro Kolbaia ◽  
Ana Gogoladze
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Seed Bank ◽  
Plant Genetic Resources ◽  
Botanical Garden ◽  
Ex Situ ◽  
Wild Plant ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Seed Collection ◽  
Royal Botanic Gardens

Working group of the Department of Plant Conservation of the National Botanical Garden of Georgia (NBGG) have been participating in the global Millennium Seed Bank Partnership, led by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew since 2005. During the 2005-2018 period, within the scope of MSB-1 and MSB-2, seeds and herbarium samples of more than 1750 plant species and interspecific taxa, belonging to 107 families and 483 genera (more than 41% of Georgia’s flora) – 348 endemics of Caucasus and 151 endemics of Georgia, have been secured in the National Seed Bank of Georgia (NSB). Seed Bank data are managed in BRAHMS (Department of Plant Sciences of Oxford University). The collection of wild plant species is accompanied by the comprehensive database of geographical, botanical and habitat information. Later phase involves laboratory treatment and germination/viability testing (at least 500 seeds per species) and the long-term deposition and storage (under -20◦C temperature) at the National Seed Bank of Georgia. The duplicates of seed collection and herbarium vouchers are stored at the Millennium Seed Bank of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK. Germination capacity and viability of collections in NSB is determined before cold storage of seeds, while at the MSB already banked seeds are tested.Keywords: Seed bank; Ex-situ conservation; Plant diversity; Botanical garden; Genetic resources

scholarly journals The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

1948 ◽  
Vol 135 (881) ◽  
pp. 419-429
Author(s):  
Edward James Salisbury
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Botanical Garden ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Main Function ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Accurate Identification ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
Royal Botanic Gardens ◽  
Economic Assets

Science can be defined as the philosophical co-ordination of classified information. Accurate identification of the units to be classified is fundamental to all scientific progress, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, has as its main function this service to science with respect to plants. By the public generally the Institution is usually regarded merely as an exceptionally beautiful garden and a pleasant resort, because these by-products of its equipment as a research organization are far more conspicuous than those provisions which are more directly concerned with its serious purposes. It will help to, place those purposes in true perspective if we review briefly the origin and history of the Institution. Although it is little more than a century since Kew became a National Research Establishment, the development at Kew of a Botanical Garden was the conception of that remarkable woman Princess Augusta, the mother of George III. Thus it was the enterprise and initiative of this individual in her private capacity, establishing an unusual type of garden on her own property, which explains why the largest botanical collections of living plants in the world are located on a rather sterile sandy soil, that from the point of view of culture has many defects and few merits. Sir William Chambers, writing in 1763, alludes to this fact when he says of Kew Gardens, ‘what was once a desert is now an Eden. The judgment with which art hath been employed to supply the defects of nature and to cover its deformities hath very justly gained universal admiration.’ However, in the days when labour was cheap and farm­-yard manure plentiful, the building up of soil fertility was no hard task. But the impression of a favoured area which visitors to Kew often carry away is a tribute to generations of skilled cultivators whose superb craftsmanship has minimized the intrinsic defects of the soil and the pollution of an atmosphere laden with soot and sulphur dioxide. Thus only thirty years after Princess Augusta began the project Erasmus Darwin (1791) could write, ‘So sits enthroned in vegetable pride Imperial Kew by Thames’ glittering side.’ There are a number of botanical gardens as distinct from Physic Gardens, far older than Kew, such, for example, as hose at Padua, and Montpellier, but Princess Augusta when she began to create her garden in 1759 was something of a pioneer in that she collected plants for their own sake, and not merely because they were useful in medicine, or had other economic assets. She was assisted in this task by the Third Earl of Bute, of whom a contemporary wrote that ‘ he was unfitted to be Prime Minister on three counts, firstly because he was a Scotsman, secondly because he was a friend of the King and thirdly because he was an Honest man’. But, however unfitted he was as a politician, he possessed undoubted ability as a botanist and was in effect the first Director of the Gardens.

scholarly journals Coletas botânicas na zona costeira do estado do Maranhão, nordeste do Brasil.

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3006
Author(s):  
Claudio Urbano Bittencourt Pinheiro
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
York Botanical ◽  
Smithsonian Institution ◽  
Botanical Garden ◽  
The State ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
New York Botanical Garden ◽  
Royal Botanic Gardens

A área costeira do estado do Maranhão representa, em grande parte, a diversidade ambiental, em especial vegetacional, do Brasil, pela sua extensão e posição geográfica transicional entre o Nordeste e o Norte do país. Este estudo pretendeu levantar, catalogar, analisar e classificar as espécies vegetais da flora de formações costeiras do estado do Maranhão presentes nas coleções e bancos de dados de jardins botânicos. Foram levantadas as espécies vegetais da zona costeira do Maranhão presentes nas coleções dos seguintes jardins botânicos: New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY, USA; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA; Royal Botanic Gardens (KEW, UK); e Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro (JBRJ, Brasil). As seguintes informações foram extraídas: a) número total de espécies nas quatro instituições, por município costeiro do estado; b) espécies mais coletadas e menos coletadas; c) tipologias de vegetação nas áreas coletadas; d) espécies mais representativas nas tipologias de vegetação; e) formas de crescimento das espécies coletadas; f) distribuição temporal das coletas e das espécies coletadas; g)  presença e ausência de espécies em faixas temporais das coletas botânicas. Os dados coletados e as diferentes abordagens nas análises mostraram, no geral, que a área territorial estadual é insuficientemente coletada, com baixo número de coletas, além de temporalmente mal representadas. O estudo resume a realidade vegetal maranhense nos acervos das principais instituições botânicas do mundo e do Brasil. Botanical records of coastal formations in Maranhão, northeastern Brazil A B S T R A C TThe coastal area of the state of Maranhão represents, to a large extent, the environmental diversity, especially the plant diversity, of Brazil, due to its extension and transitional geographical position between the Northeast and the North regions of the country. This study aimed to survey the plant species of the flora from coastal plant formations in the state of Maranhão present in the collections and databases of botanical gardens. Plant species from the coastal zone of Maranhão in the collections of the following botanical gardens were surveyed: a) New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY, USA; b) Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA; Royal Botanic Gardens (KEW, UK); and Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro (JBRJ, Brazil). The following information were extracted: a) total number of species in the four institutions, by institution, by coastal state municipality; b) more collected species and less collected species; c) types of vegetation in the areas collected; d) more representative species in types of vegetation; e) forms of growth of the species collected; f) temporal distribution of collections and species collected; g) presence or absence of species in collection time frames. The data collected and the different approaches from the analysis showed, in general, that state territorial area is insufficiently collected, with a low number of collections, in addition to collections that are temporally poorly represented. This study summarizes Maranhão’s plant reality in the collections of the main botanical institutions of the world and Brazil.Keywords: botanical collections, herbarium, Maranhão.

Hybrid origin of Athrotaxis laxifolia (Taxodiaceae) confirmed by random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis

2000 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 753 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keiya Isoda ◽  
Tim Brodribb ◽  
Susumu Shiraishi
Keyword(s):  
Dna Analysis ◽  
Genetic Relationships ◽  
Random Amplified Polymorphic Dna ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Single Strand Conformation Polymorphism ◽  
Hybrid Origin ◽  
Pollen Donor ◽  
Atpa Gene ◽  
D Values

Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analyses were employed for investigating genetic relationships of three Athrotaxis D.Don species. Twenty-nine RAPD primers produced 103 polymorphic bands. Principal component analysis revealed the genomic differentiation among three Athrotaxis species. Mean genetic distance (mean d) between A. selaginoides D.Don and A. cupressoides D.Don was 0.89. Mean d values were reduced to 0.42/0.54 between A. laxifolia Hook. and A. selaginoides/A. cupressoides, respectively. Intraspecific mean d of A. selaginoides and A. cupressoides were, respectively, 0.03 and 0.11. These values indicated that A. laxifolia, which is regarded as a hybrid between A. selaginoides and A. cupressoides, is genetically intermediate between A. selaginoides and A. cupressoides. This genetic characteristic and previously reported morphological characteristics suggest the hybrid origins of A. laxifolia. The genomic composition of A. laxifolia was estimated by the number of bands specific to A. selaginoides or A. cupressoides in order to determine the genomic contribution of these two species to its proposed hybrid, A. laxifolia. All of the five individuals investigated herein possessed genomes derived almost evenly from A. selaginoides and A. cupressoides. Furthermore, the pollen donor of A. laxifolia was determined by SSCP analysis of the atpA gene on chloroplast DNA. Because all of the five A. laxifolia possessed the A. selaginoides-type chloroplast genome, A. laxifolia would be a hybrid of A. selaginoides as a paternal parent and A. cupressoides as a maternal parent.

scholarly journals Challenges, Solutions, and Workflows Developed for the Taxonomic Backbone of the World Flora Online.

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Ulate ◽  
Sunitha Katabathuni ◽  
Alan Elliott
Keyword(s):  
Working Group ◽  
Botanical Garden ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Missouri Botanical ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Plant Names ◽  
The World ◽  
Name Matching ◽  
Royal Botanic Gardens ◽  
Missouri Botanical Garden

The World Flora Online (WFO) is the collaborative, international initiative to achieve Target 1 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC): "An online flora of all known plants." WFO provides an open-access, web-based compendium of the world’s plant species, which builds upon existing knowledge and published floras, checklists and revisions but will also require the collection and generation of new information on poorly known groups and unexplored regions (Borsch et al. 2020). The construction of the WFO Taxonomic Backbone is central to the entire WFO as it determines the accessibility of additional content data and at the same time, represents a taxonomic opinion on the circumscription of those taxa. The Plant List v.1.1 (TPL 2013) was the starting point for the backbone, as this was the most comprehensive resource covering all plants available. We have since curated the higher taxonomy of the backbone, based on the following published community-derived classifications: the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG IV 2016), the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group (PPG I 2016), Bryophytes (Buck et al. 2008), and Hornworts & Liverworts (Söderström et al. 2016). The WFO presents a community-supported consensus classification with the aim of being the authoritative global source of information on the world's plant diversity. The backbone is actively curated by our Taxonomic Expert Networks (TEN), consisting of specialists of taxonomic groups, ideally at the Family or Order level. There are currently 37 approved TENs, involving more than 280 specialists, working with the WFO. There are small TENs like the Begonia Resource Center and the Meconopsis Group (with five specialists), medium TENs like Ericaceae and Zingiberaceae Resource Centers or SolanaceaSource.org (around 15 experts), and larger TENs like Caryophyllales.org and the Legume Phylogeny Working Group, with more than 80 specialists involved. When we do not have taxonomic oversight, the World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP 2019) has been used to update those families from the TPL 2013 classification. Full credit and acknowledgement given to the original sources is a key requirement of this collaborative project, allowing users to refer to the primary data. For example, an association with the original content is kept through the local identifiers used by the taxonomic content providers as a link to their own resources. A key requirement for the WFO Taxonomic Backbone is that every name should have a globally unique identifier that is maintained, ideally forever. After considering several options, the WFO Technology Working Group recommended that the WFO Council establish a WFO Identifier (WFO-ID), a 10-digit number with a “wfo-” prefix, aimed at establishing a resolvable identifier for all existing plant names, which will not only be used in the context of WFO but can be universally used to reference plant names. Management of the WFO Taxonomic Backbone has been a challenge as TPL v1.1 was derived from multiple taxonomic datasets, which led to duplication of records. For that reason, names can be excluded from the public portal by the WFO Taxonomic Working Group or the TENs, but not deleted. A WFO-ID is not deleted nor reused after it has been excluded from the WFO Taxonomic Backbone. Keeping these allows for better matching when assigning WFO-IDs to data derived from content providers. Nevertheless, this implies certain considerations for new names and duplications. New names are added to the WFO Taxonomic Backbone via nomenclators like the International Plants Name Index (IPNI, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew et al. 2021) for Angiosperms, and Tropicos (Missouri Botanical Garden 2021) for Bryophytes, as well as harvesting endemic and infraspecific names from Flora providers when providing descriptive content. New names are passed to the TEN to make a judgement on their taxonomic status. When TENs provide a new authoritative taxonomic list for their group, we first produce a Name Matching report to ensure no names are missed. Several issues come from managing and maintaining taxonomic lists, but the process of curating an ever-growing integrated resource leads to an increase in the challenges we face with homonyms, non-standard author abbreviations, orthographic variants and duplicate names when Name Matching. The eMonocot database application, provided by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, (Santarsiero et al. 2013) and subsequently adapted by the Missouri Botanical Garden to provide the underlying functionality for WFO's current toolset, has also proven itself to be a challenging component to update. In this presentation, we will share our hands-on experience, technical solutions and workflows creating and maintaining the WFO Taxonomic Backbone.

scholarly journals O uso de dados de coletas botânicas em estudos de diversidade e conservação vegetal nas zonas costeiras das regiões Norte e Nordeste do Brasil (The use of data from botanical collections in studies of diversity and plant conservation in the coastal zones of the North and Northeast regions of Brazil)

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1449
Author(s):  
Claudio Urbano Bittencourt Pinheiro
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Rio De Janeiro ◽  
York Botanical ◽  
Smithsonian Institution ◽  
Botanical Garden ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Coastal Zones ◽  
The North ◽  
New York Botanical Garden ◽  
Royal Botanic Gardens

Os herbários documentam a diversidade vegetal de determinada região ou país, funcionando como ferramentas para os estudos de plantas. Para este estudo, foram levantandos dados da flora costeira das regiões Norte e Nordeste do Brasil presentes nas coleções e bancos de dados do New York Botanical Garden (EUA), Smithsonian Institution (EUA), Royal Botanic Gardens (UK) e Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro (Brasil). Foram coletados e analisados dados botânicos e ambientais obtidos das etiquetas de coletas botânicas em 232 municípios costeiros das regiões Norte e Nordeste do Brasil. Os dados foram processados e analisados com o uso do software estatístico JMP, resultando em uma avaliação da terminologia de classificação da vegetação usada por coletores botânicos, da distribuição do número de espécimes e espécies coletadas nestas regiões, da distribuição espacial e temporal das coletas botânicas, além de uma avaliação da riqueza e da conservação de espécies com base nas informações das coleções botânicas. Os resultados mostraram falta de padrões para classificações e terminologias usadas por coletores, o que dificulta o uso dos dados em estudos mais amplos. Revelaram também baixa representatividade de espécies nos herbários em relação ao número de espécimes existentes, bem como um significativo desequilíbrio numérico, temporal e espacial nas coletas botânicas na área de estudo com distribuição irregular ao longo do espaço geográfico, produzindo áreas bem coletadas e áreas com grandes lacunas de coletas. Em geral, parece ser necessário um esforço mais coordenado, não somente entre instituições, mas também dentro de cada instituição, que resulte em coletas mais efetivas e mais bem distribuídas, em número, tempo e espaço.   A B S T R A C THerbaria document the plant diversity of a particular region or country, functioning as tools for plant studies. For this study, data were collected on the flora of the coastal formations of the North and Northeast of Brazil present in the collections and databases of the New York Botanical Garden (USA), Smithsonian Institution (USA), Royal Botanic Gardens (UK) and Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). Data were collected and analyzed from botanical collections of 232 coastal municipalities of the North and Northeast regions of Brazil obtained from labels of botanical collections. The data were processed and analyzed using the statistical software JMP, resulting in an evaluation of the classification of the vegetation used by botanical collectors, distribution of the number of specimens and species collected, spatial and temporal distribution of the botanical collections, as well as an evaluation of the richness and conservation of species based on botanical collections. The results showed lack of standards for classifications and terminologies used by collectors what make difficult the use of these data on broader studies. They also revealed low representativeness of species in herbaria in relation to the number of existing specimens, as well as a significant numerical, temporal and spatial imbalance in the botanical collections in the study area with irregular distribution along the geographic space, producing well-collected areas and also areas with large collection gaps. In general, a more coordinated effort seems to be needed, not only among institutions, but also within each institution, which could result in more effective and better distributed collections, in number, time and space.Keywords: Botanical Collection, Herbarium, Distribution, Diversity, Conservation

scholarly journals First Record of White Rust, Caused by Albugo occidentalis, on Spinach in Greece

Plant Disease ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 97 (9) ◽  
pp. 1253-1253 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Vakalounakis ◽  
A. G. Doulis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Spinacia Oleracea ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
First Record ◽  
The United States ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Voucher Specimen ◽  
White Rust ◽  
Royal Botanic Gardens

In early December 2012 and February 2013, severe symptoms of white rust were observed on several commercial crops of the spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) cvs. Tahiti and Rembrandt in the Aghia Pelaghia and Elia areas, respectively, of Heraklio, Crete, Greece. Initially, small, chlorotic lesions developed on the upper side of the leaves. As disease progressed, small, glassy white pustules developed on the underside of each leaf, frequently in concentric rings. The pustules were blister-like and oval, irregularly oval, or elongated, ranging from 0.5 to 2.0 mm in diameter and up to 3 mm in length. Lesions often coalesced, and the pustules could cover the entire lower leaf surface, rendering them unmarketable. The dome-like epidermis of host tissue covering the white rust pustules ruptured and exposed a white, chalky ‘dust’ of numerous powdery spores in small, circular to elongate sori. The sporangia were arranged in basipetal chains, were globose to oval, with a smooth wall that was uniformly thick and measured 19.1 ± 1.93 (14.1 to 23.5) μm × 15.3 ± 1.49 (12.9 to 20.0) μm when hydrated. Oospores were absent from the leaves. The morphological characteristics closely resembled those reported for the white rust pathogen, Albugo occidentalis Wilson (4), as well as those of A. occidentalis measured from dried leaves of Chenopodium spp. and Monolepis nuttalliana (Schult.) Greene (Herb. IMI96980, IMI351202, and IMI26345, respectively), kindly loaned by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom. Pathogenicity was confirmed by spraying a suspension of 105 sporangia/ml on 10 healthy 20-day-old potted spinach plants of cv. Tahiti. Inoculated plants were covered with polyethylene bags for 3 days and incubated in a growth chamber at 16 to 20°C with a 10-h photoperiod. White rust symptoms were observed on the lower surface of the leaves 10 days after inoculation. Ten control plants sprayed similarly with distilled water and maintained under the same conditions as inoculated plants showed no symptoms. The fungus present on the inoculated plants was morphologically identical to that originally observed on diseased plants, fulfilling Koch's postulates. Genomic DNA from spinach leaf sori was extracted, and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of ribosomal DNA (rDNA), ITS1-5,8S-ITS2, as well as the cytochrome oxidase subunit II (COX2) mitochondrial gene, were amplified. PCR products were sequenced and deposited in GenBank (KC676794 and KC676795, respectively). In a BLAST search, the ITS1-5,8S-ITS2 and COX2 sequences showed 99% similarities to 684 bp (AJ553900.1) and 599 bp (AY286220.1) sequences of the corresponding A. occidentalis genes in GenBank, respectively. Based on morphological characteristics, pathogenicity tests, and molecular sequencing data, it was concluded that the pathogen on spinach in Crete is A. occidentalis. This is an economically important pathogen of spinach in the United States, that has also has been recorded in Iran (2) and India on a Chenopodium sp. (IMI351202), and in Canada on M. nuttalliana (IMI26345). To our knowledge, this is the first report of this pathogen in Greece, and the first record on spinach in Europe. A voucher specimen has been deposited at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom (Accession No. K(M) 181610). References: (1) J. C. Correll et al. Eur. J. Plant Pathol. 129:193, 2011. (2) A. G. Ebrahimi and H. Afzali. Rostaniha 1:73, 2000. (3) D. F. Farr et al. Fungi on Plants and Plant Products in the United States. American Phytopathological Society, St. Paul, MN, 1989. (4) G. W. Wilson. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 34:61, 1907.

scholarly journals The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

1949 ◽  
Vol 195 (1043) ◽  
pp. 423-433
Keyword(s):  
Farmyard Manure ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Botanical Garden ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Main Function ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Accurate Identification ◽  
History Of ◽  
Royal Botanic Gardens ◽  
Economic Assets

Science can be defined as the philosophical co-ordination of classified information. Accurate identification of the units to be classified is fundamental to all scientific progress, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, has as its main function this service to science with respect to plants. By the public generally the Institution is usually regarded merely as an exceptionally beautiful garden and a pleasant resort, because these by-products of its equipment as a research organization are far more conspicuous than those provisions which are more directly concerned with its serious purposes. It will help to place those purposes in true perspective if we review briefly the origin and history of the Institution. Although it is little more than a century since Kew became a National Research Establishment, the development at Kew of a Botanical Garden was the conception of that remarkable woman Princess Augusta, the mother of George III. Thus it was the enterprise and initiative of this individual in her private capacity, establishing an unusual type of garden on her own property, which explains why the largest botanical collections of living plants in the world are located on a rather sterile sandy soil, that from the point of view of culture has many defects and few merits. Sir William Chambers, writing in 1763, alludes to this fact when he says of Kew Gardens, ‘what was once a desert is now an Eden. The judgment with which art hath been employed to supply the defects of nature and to cover its deformities hath very justly gained universal admiration.’ However, in the days when labour was cheap and farmyard manure plentiful, the building up of soil fertility was no hard task. But the impression of a favoured area which visitors to Kew oftqn carry away is a tribute to generations of skilled cultivators whose superb craftsmanship has minimized the intrinsic defects of the soil and the pollution of an atmosphere laden with soot and sulphur dioxide. Thus only thirty years after Princess Augusta began the project Erasmus Darwin (1791) could write, ‘So sits enthroned in vegetable pride Imperial Kew by Thames’ glittering side.’ There are a number of botanical gardens as distinct from Physic Gardens, far older than Kew, such, for example, as those at Padua, and Montpellier, but Princess Augusta when she began to create her garden in 1759 was something of a pioneer in that she collected plants for their own sake, and not merely because they were useful in medicine, or had other economic assets. She was assisted in this task by the Third Earl of Bute, of whom a contemporary wrote that ‘he was unfitted to be Prime Minister on three counts, firstly because he was a Scotsman, secondly because he was a friend of the King and thirdly because he was an Honest m an’. But, however unfitted he was as a politician, he possessed undoubted ability as a botanist and was in effect the first Director of the Gardens.

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