Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Botanic Gardens
by Sydney Parkinson.
The St Vincent and the Grenadines Botanic Gardens is located in Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Established in 1765, it is one of the oldest in the Western Hemisphere (preceded by Kew Gardens in London and Bartram's Garden in Philadelphia).
The magnificent Botanic Gardens are currently one of the most visited sites in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.[1] A historic landmark of major national, regional and global significance, the Botanic Gardens occupies approximately 20 acres (81,000 m2).
History
Following the Peace of Paris in (1763) the newly-appointed governor of the southern British Caribbean islands, Robert Melville, and the military surgeon in St. Vincent, George Young, decided to create a botanic garden, primarily to provide medicinal plants for the military and improve the life and economy of the colony. 18th century botanists placed great emphasi on introducing valuable and commercial plants from the East Indies to Kew Gardens in England to be sent later to the American tropics. The Royal Society fostered the introduction, establishment, and dissemination of highly-prized species.
Melville, anticipating modern ethnobotany, urged that "physical practitioners of the country, natives of experience, and even old Caribs and slaves who have dealt in cures might be worth taking notice of, and if at any time you should think that a secret may be got at or even an improvement for small expense, I shall readily pay for it." The War Department (UK) and the Honourable East India Company sent seeds and plants from tropical India and from British North Borneo, Sabah, and Sarawak in the East Indies. Other species came from French and Caribbean sources, such as cinnamon from Guadeloupe and Grenada. From Kew Gardens came seeds from China.[2]
Under George Young (1765-1785), and the capable and enthusiastic guidance of the second superintendent curator, Alexander Anderson who served from 1785-1811, the Botanical Gardens quickly attained an enviable reputation and received wide acclaim.[2]The garden attracted talented successor curators, including William Lochead, George Caley, Henry Powell, and William Sands.[2]
A third-generation clone of a breadfruit tree in the twenty-first century collection of the gardens came from an original plant brought in 1793 by Captain William Bligh (of Bounty fame).[1] In 1787-88 Captain Bligh made his ill-fated voyage on the HMS Bounty to Tahiti to collect breadfruit and other useful plants for the West Indies.[3] Undaunted by the notorious mutiny of his first crew, Bligh again set sail for Tahiti aboard HMS Providence. He completed his mission in Kingstown, St. Vincent on January 23, 1793 with plants from the South Seas.[4] The Botanic Garden's Curator Alexander Anderson took great care of these plants, and the success of all those efforts is evident from the widespread distribution of breadfruit, the most useful food plant throughout the West Indies.
The first half of the 19th Century was a lean time for colonial botanic gardens. By 1850, due to a lack of interest and maintenance, the St. Vincent gardens had fallen into disrepair. Local efforts in St. Vincent initiated in 1884 began to revive the gardens; by 1890 the work was reactivated as part of a larger agricultural and botanical scheme.
The Botanical Gardens soon regained their former glory and beauty, and the plant collections were recovered. Considerable attention was given to experimental work in the gardens on economic crops until 1944 (cotton, arrowroot, cacao and sugarcane). The layout of the re-established Gardens was improved by the construction of a small Doric Temple, by road building and by the continuous introduction of plants to maintain and add to the collection.[1]
Conservation Programs
The Nicholas Wildlife Aviary Complex, located within the Gardens, maintains a captive breeding program to conserve the vulnerable St Vincent Parrot, “Amazona guildingii”, the National Bird. These endemic parrots can be found in the wild and also in the Aviary. And Fia was born in 2004 23rd of April.[1]
Several members of the British Royal Family have planted a tree in the Garden, where pink poui (Tabebuia rosea) was planted by Earl of Wessex — Prince Edward on 27 February 2012 and a Baobab (Adansonia digitata=) tree was planted by The Duke of Sussex — Prince Harry on 28 November 2016.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e "Botanical Gardens website". Botanical Gardens.
- ^ a b c Howard, Richard (1997). "The St. Vincent Botanic Garden—The Early Years" (PDF). Arnoldia, Arboretum of Harvard University (Vol. 57, No. 4 (Winter 1997-1998)).
{{cite journal}}:|issue=has extra text (help) - ^ William Bligh, A Voyage to the South Sea For The Purpose Of Conveying The Bread-Fruit Tree To The West Indies, Including An Account Of The Mutiny On Board The Ship, Project Gutenberg, No. 15411.
- ^ "Series 56: Letters and plant lists received by Banks from Alexander Anderson, concerning the breadfruit voyage of HM Ships Providence and Assistant, William Bligh, 1792-1793, State Library of New South Wales". Archived from the original on 2007-09-02. Retrieved 2007-05-28.