The Centenary of the Calcutta Botanic Garden.

Abstract

THE Report of Dr. George King, the Superintendent of the Botanic Garden of Calcutta, for the past year gives a brief history of the work of that institution during the century of its existence, which has just been completed. The suggestion for its foundation was made to the Government in Calcutta in 1786 by Colonel Robert Kyd, then Superintendent of the East India Company's dockyard at Kidderpore. The adoption of the proposal was urged upon the Board in London by the Governor-General, and upon their sanctioning it a large piece of land at Shalimar was chosen as the site, and Colonel Kyd was elected the first Superintendent. He held the post till his death in 1793. At the outset it was understood that the Garden was to be made a source of information for the Company's servants, and a place in which experiments could be made on those exotics which were of economic value. It was also intended to be a horticultural and agricultural garden, which would assist in introducing indigenous Indian products to new markets. The earliest efforts of Colonel Kyd were directed to the introduction of trees yielding nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon, and to attempt to cultivate them. This, however, was a failure, the climate being shown to be quite unsuitable to them. The equatorial fruits, such as mango-steen and bread-fruit were tried with a similar result, and also the temperate fruits of Europe, and thus at an early stage it was demonstrated that any such effort was quite useless. Colonel Kyd introduced tea cultivation, and in this he was highly successful, and it was owing to his efforts that the tea-industry has become one of the most important in India. On the death of Colonel Kyd, Dr. William Roxburgh, the Company's Botanist in Madras, was appointed to the post, and continued in it till 1814. He was an ardent botanist, and was the first who attempted to draw up a systematic account of the plants of India. His Flora Indica contained descriptions of all the indigenous plants he had met, and also of the exotics in cultivation at Calcutta. This book was not published till 1832, and it was, till Sir Joseph Hooker commenced his work on the “Flora of British India” in 1872, the only book from which a good knowledge of Indian plants could be acquired. Besides his “Flora Indica,” Roxburgh published “Plantæ Coromandalianæ,” descriptions of three hundred of the most representative plants on the Coromandel Coast. Dr. Roxburgh, who left India on account of failing health, was succeeded by Dr. Buchanan-Hamilton, who collected a mass of information about the fauna and flora of India, a portion of which he published in his own name, but the greater part was issued in Montgomery Martin's “History, Topography, and Statistics of Eastern India.” In 1817, Dr. Wallich became Superintendent. Wallich was a most energetic man, and during his term of office he made collections in Kumaon, Nepal, Tenasserim, Singapore, Penang, and other places. His collections of dried plants were taken by him to London, and after their classification they were distributed to the chief botanical institutions in Europe. Dr. Wallich published three fine volumes, “Plantæ Asiaticæ Rariores,” illustrated with excellent figures. On Dr. Wallich's retirement in 1846, Dr. Hugh Falconer, who is well known on account of his researches on the Sivalik fossil Mammalia, succeeded to the post. Dr. Thomas Thomson, the co-worker of Sir Joseph Hooker in the collection and distribution of an extensive East Indian Herbarium, was the next Superintendent. His successor, Dr Thomas Anderson, died in 1870 from disease contracted when labouring to introduce the quinine-yielding Cinchonas into the Himalayas. This latter work—that is, the cultivation of the Cinchonas of the Andes—has been a great success. The Garden authorities, in connection with the Agri-Horticultural Society of India, made great and successful efforts to improve the quality of Indian cotton, and to push its sale and that of jute in the European markets. The united bodies also imported better kinds of sugar-cane from the West Indies, and thus improved the quality and the amount of the sugar-crop in India. The various Superintendents made from time to time experiments in the cultivation of plants and products of economic value, as, for instance, tapioca, india-rubber, sarsaparilla, aloes, cocoa, and many others. Many of the various kinds of exotics now grown in India have been introduced through the instrumentality of the Garden, and the authorities have shown to the inhabitants of India the advantages of better systems of cultivation than they previously pursued.