Botanical Gardens: Definition, Functions and History

In this article we will discuss about:- 1. Definition of Botanical Garden 2. Functions of Botanical Gardens 3. History.

Definition of Botanical Garden:

The garden is generally defined as a place for growing flowers, fruits or vegetables. But botanic or botanical garden is an educational institution for scientific workers and general public or layman to awake and enlightened interest in plant life.

The botanical gardens are of immense value not only to botanists, home gardeners, nurserymen, horticulturists, landscape gardeners and foresters but also to millions of national and international tourists.

The botanical gardens should have morphological gardens to display seed dispersal in plants; genetics or breeding garden to display the laws of heredity and a taxonomic garden to display plant families. There should be a fruticetum, arboteum, a section of economic plants; green houses and nurseries for propagating and cultivating exotic, end genetic and delicate plants.

A botanical garden is an institution for botanical research, especially on the native flora of the region. There should be a herbarium, library, photographic studies, lecture pavilon and recreational facilities. In fact all the fundamental and applied aspects of botany come within the purview of botanical garden and it becomes the centre of cultural activities of the region in which it is situated.

Functions of Botanical Gardens:

The botanical gardens are the natural source of science and culture.

The functions of gardens are following:

1. Botanical gardens act as out-door laboratories.

2. Initiate studies on the tropical and temperate ecosystems and their biota, before they are lost to science and preserve such systems.

3. Serve as centres of gene pools or germ plasm bank of wild relatives of economically important plants.

4. Establish Nature centres and youth Museums to focus attention on destruction of tropical and temperate ecosystem, environmental degradation.

5. Maintain less attractive and abandoned ornamental plants.

6. Train city arborists in the plantation of trees in urban areas.

7. Collaborate university and others to conduct research in environmental biology etc.

8. Organise educational programmes to create environmental awareness among children students and train teachers in environmental education.

9. Centres of conservation of endangered and rare species.

10. Botanical gardens provide living plant materials for research.

11. They serve as pollution indicator centres by growing pollution – susceptible plants.

12. Most of the economic plants were originally introduced and distributed to the other parts of the world through botanic gardens.

13. Inspire poets, litrators etc. by providing aesthetical pleasure.

14. Serene site for relaxation. The gardens provide a suitable environment for relaxation and relieve the body and the mind of the stress and strain.

15. Garden therapy for eye-sight, mental-stress etc.

16. People of advance—age find a great solace in lovely gardens.

17. Gardens also arrange flowers shows, put on displays seasonal plants, flowers and plants of unusual interest.

18. The landscape gardens are becoming quite popular and land a great charm to the adjoining building like libraries, museums, sportsground etc.

19. Conserve the flora and fauna in natural habitat.

History of Botanical Gardens:

The gardens are as old as civilization. Man had begun to cultivate plants in gardens, to supply himself conveniently with food, to provide drugs, or to grow beautiful flowers. Even very primitive tribes engage in vegetable gardening and often, surprisingly, flower gardening.

In the ancient civilization gardens were prominent features of the grounds of temples or palaces, as well as of the homes of the nobility. The number of plants cultivated by the ancient Egyptians was a source of wonder to neighbouring peoples. The “Hanging Gardens” of Babylon are counted among the wonders of the ancient world.

With the Renaissance and the widening of men’s horizons, the art of gardening prospered as a result of new enthusiasm. Bizarre and valuable plants from the newly discovered lands brought a new zest for plant introduction.

The sixteenth century herbalists, as we have seen, acquainted the world with hundreds of plants, many of them growing in gardens. A mounting interest in the growing of flowers for beautification of grounds around homes led to the introduction of species from the parts of the world.

The interest in learning that led to the establishment and development of the great universities resulted likewise in the establishment of botanical gardens in connection with the schools.

In India the botanic gardens existed at a very early date probably as early as 546 B.C. The famous Indian physician Jivaka Komarabhacca who flourished during the region of King Bimbisara of Magadh (modern Bihar) from 546 to 494 B.C. made intensive survey of the medicinal plants of India.

These gardens have been in existence throughout India for thousands of years and have been repeatedly mentioned in ancient Sanskrit literature. They functioned as the botanical gardens of the Old World.

The botanical gardens reflected the growth of human culture of the regions in which they were situated today, and reflect the glory of a nation or of a country. The Indian history, which runs through thousands of years, we find that these gardens flourished with the rise of different dynasties and dwindled away with their fall.

During the progress of Mughals, East India Company, and British, botanical gardens prospered and with their fall, the garden decayed. Now with India’s independence, they are again coming up. A network of botanical gardens have come up and are functioning throughout the country with intensive botanical activity.

 

MAJOR BOTANICAL GARDENS IN INDIA

1. Lalbagh or the Mysore State Botanical Garden, Bangalore:

It is a historic garden that has attained a privileged place among the gardens of the word.

It is considered to be the best in the east for its layout, grandeur, maintenance, scientific interest and scenic beauty. KEW, the mother institute of world botanic gardens, has influenced and helped it by supplying new plants and trained staff since 1856.

Lalbagh has influenced the development of horticulture in India by extensive plant introduction.

This garden was laid in the form of royal retreat in Bangalore by Sultan Hyder Ali in 1760. He imported plants from Delhi, Lahore and Multan for this garden. His son Tippu Sultan further improved it, and introduced many new species of flowering and fruit plants. Some of ilk trees planted during Tippu’s time still adorn the garden.

Major Waugh was its director during 1799-1819. He introduced a number of foreign exotic plants in this garden. However, Dr. Cleghorn made it a real botanic garden it) 1856. A tropical nursery was established in the garden in 1908. Rao Bahadur H.C. Jayaraja was the first Indian director of this garden. The garden is now a big centre of horticultural activities. It now has well-equipped laboratories for seed-testing and soil-testing, and also a grape orchard, tree nursery, fruit nursery, pot-garden, economic garden, and a herbal garden.

2. Lloyd Botanic Garden, Darjeeling:

The initiative to develop a botanic garden near Darjeeling in Himalayas came from Sir Ashley Eden, the then Lieutenant Governor of Bengal. The garden came into existence as a branch establishment of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta, and was laid out on 40 acres of land donated by Mr. William Lloyed, under the guidance of Sir George king.

The garden is situated at an altitude of 6000 ft. with an annual rainfall of 110 inches. The climatic conditions there have helped to establish and sustain the characteristic flora of Sikkim Himalayas. Mr A.G. Jeffrey was the first curator of this garden.

Since 1910, this garden has become a major institution for the distribution of seeds, bulbs, and plants of temperate Himalayas to different parts of the world. It has a vast collection of plants from Burma, China and Japan. It has separate sections of coniferous and indigenous plants. A Rock Garden, Orchidarium, Bulbous section, Succulent section, Seed section, Herbarium of over 30,000 specimens, and Rosary are its major attractions. Its coniferous section has 45 species including Australian Callitris.

3. National Botanic Garden, Lucknow:

Lucknow, the city of Nawabs, once used to be the city of gardens too. The present National Botanic Garden is popularly known as Sikander Bagh. The Sikander Bagh was originally laid out by Nawab Saadat Ali Khan (1789-1814) and was later on expanded and improved by Nawab Wajid Ali Shah and named it after his beloved Begum Sikander Mahal.

It was converted into a botanic garden in its new form in 1946 by Professor K.N. Kaul, its first director. The idea of establishing a botanic garden at Lucknow originated in 1929 following the interest aroused by a drug, Santonin, obtained from Artemisia maritima. At that time Soviet Union was the only supplier of this drug to the world.

The present garden and its laboratories are spread over 27 acres of land on the bank of river Gomti. Popular attractions of this garden are its Rosarium, Palm house, Cactus house, Fern house, Orchid house, and orchards of mango, Citrus and guava. It has well-equipped laboratories of Plant Morphology, Aromatics, Cytogenetics, Plant breeding, Tissue culture, Virology, Palynology, Plant Physiology, Entomology, etc. The garden bears an added experimental research station at Banthra, about 20 km from Lucknow.

4. Botanical Garden of Forest Research Institute, Dehradun:

It is perhaps the youngest member of the family of botanic gardens in India, yet it has attained the status of one of the 500 principal botanic gardens of the world. It was established in 1934 under the leadership of C.E. Parkinson. The later successors N. L. Bor and M. B. Raizada made invaluable contributions to this botanic garden and its herbarium. S. Kedarnath, who looks over in 1962, continued the work of introduction of exotic plants.

It covers an area of about 20 acres in New Forest Estate, Dehradun, and is the main Indian centre of research in problems related with plant introduction. There are about 700 species of plants belonging to about 400 genera and about 100 families in this garden. Over half of these 700 species have been introduced from different parts of the world. The garden has a greenhouse, a cactus house and a Plant Introductory Nursery. Its biggest attraction is a big herbarium holding over 30, 00, 00 plant specimens from all over the world.

5. Indian Botanical Garden, Calcutta – The Largest Botanical Garden of India:

The Royal Botanic Garden or the Indian Botanic Garden, as renamed in 1950, Sibpur, Calcutta, was laid on 310 acres of land on the bank of the river Hoogly in 1787 at the initiative of Col. Robert Kyd of the Bengal infantry. William Roxburgh, the Father of Indian Botany, was its second director and founded the world famous herbarium of this garden. The garden is now under the control of Botanical Survey of India. Dr. K. Biswas was the first Indian to be appointed Superintendent of this garden in 1937. George King was the designer of this garden.

The garden is now noted for potato cultivation and introduction of jute, sugarcane, tea, and quinine-yielding Cinchona. Cultivation of Aloe, coffee, India-rubber, cardamom, are Henbane are some of the special achievements of this garden.

The great Banyan tree, which is one of the largest trees in size in the world, is the main centre of attraction of this garden. It appears like a miniature forest in itself. Over 1700 of its aerial roots are actually rooted in the ground. The circumference of the canopy of this single tree is more than 405 metre.

It is considered to be over 250 years of age. There are over 15000 species of plants in this garden from several countries. Some main attractions of the garden are its Palm-house, Orchid-house, Pinetum, Ternary, Cacti-collection, the giant water lily, Victoria regia, and the section of medicinal plants.

The garden has the largest and best herbarium in the country. The large number of herbarium specimens (about 2.5 million) and the type materials add to the value of the herbarium. Since 1957, the major part of this collection has been shifted to the Botanical Survey of India. Botanical Garden being the headquarter of Botanical survey of India. It is now called The Central National Herbarium, Calcutta.

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