A History of the Botanic Garden of St. Vincent, British West Indies

Abstract

THE oldest botanical garden in the New World still flourishes on the island of St. Vincent in the Windward Islands of the British West Indies. Because of its location away from the usual tourist stops in the Caribbean, it receives few visitors, but among those who know it, it is appreciated as gem of nature. The historic role of this old garden in introducing, testing, developing, propagating, and distributing economic and horticultural plants for the American tropics has assured it position as one of the most important botanical gardens of all times. Currently, however, these functions have been assigned to larger department of agriculture, and the small original garden, now enveloped by the capital city of Kingstown, remains memorial to the past and pleasure to the present. The early explorers who opened the South Seas to the eyes of the world brought back to the botanical gardens of Europe seeds and living plants of exotics as well as the valuable crops of the Indies. As these plants could be grown only in hothouses in Europe, many were established and then reshipped to the British colonies in the Western Hemisphere. The introduction, development, and exploitation of these useful articles of commerce were encouraged with prizes of money and awards of medals. As early as I758 the Royal Society (later Royal Society of Arts), London, offered prizes for the improvement of agriculture and horticulture in the American colonies; the first was a gold medal for the first person bringing mango seeds to England to be sent to the West Indies for planting.' Special prizes were offered for products native to other lands but grown in the West Indies. Included in list published in I760 were prizes for olives, opium, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, sarsaparilla, aloe, safflower, indigo, cotton, annatto, vanilla, cloves, pepper, camphor, quinine, various tinctorial plants, and ornamental woods. All these were tested products of ancient civilizations that carried an economic premium on the European market and could be cultivated in the West Indies, where they could be obtained more easily and cheaply than in the East Indies. The success of the prize system established by the Royal