Calcutta Botanic Garden Draft
botanic garden / research collectionEighty acres of catalogued green, and nobody senior minding it.
The Honourable Company's botanic garden at Shibpur, on the west bank below Howrah, founded in 1787 by Colonel Robert Kyd.
Description
The Honourable Company’s botanic garden at Shibpur, on the west bank below Howrah, founded in 1787 by Colonel Robert Kyd. Eighty acres of avenues, tanks, teak plantations and glasshouses, and the most systematically catalogued vegetation in Asia.
William Roxburgh ran it from 1793 until his health failed in 1813, and no permanent successor has been appointed. It is currently in the hands of an acting superintendent.
Reached only by water: half an hour from The Strand, or round by the Howrah ferry.
Notable Features
- Roxburgh’s herbarium, drawings and manuscripts, including the botanical plates made for him by Indian artists.
- Collection records for every expedition the garden has sent out, including the Sundarbans consignment of March 1814.
- A great banyan near the centre, its aerial roots already reaching the ground.
- The No. 4 glasshouse has been locked since August. See The Garden at Shibpur.
The Senses
- Smell. Wet earth, rotting leaf, and something sweet under both that belongs to neither.
- Sound. A pump working with nobody working it, and otherwise very little.
- Colour. Green past the point of looking natural, and light through it the colour of weak tea.
Connections
- Howrah
- The Hooghly River
- The Garden at Shibpur
- Asiatic Society of Bengal
Appearances
Relationships
- Part of Howrah — On the west bank below the ferries
- Site of The Garden at Shibpur — The No. 4 glasshouse