29 June 2018
Happy 200th birthday to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Trinidad
The Archives team celebrate the bicentenary anniversary of the establishment of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Trinidad and its relationship with Kew.
Early history
One of the oldest gardens in the West Indies in continuous existence, this tropical garden today comprises 25 hectares of landscaped ground north of the capital of Port of Spain with approximately 700 trees, of which 13% are indigenous to Trinidad and Tobago. Historically, Kew had strong links with the gardens and Kew’s library, art and archives are a source of valuable information on the garden’s history. Kew’s former Directors were regularly called upon to recommend Superintendents and horticultural staff for appointment and Kew received and exchanged living, dried, and economic samples of plant materials and woods for identification. These records therefore help us to understand more about Kew’s role in the context of Empire and are an interesting record of colonial history.
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Trinidad gardens were established in 1818 during the Governorship of Sir Ralph Woodford under the direction of David Lockhart. Lockhart had been the assistant botanist to an expedition on the river Congo in 1816. Lockhart also visited Bahia, Brazil and Venezuela, where he encountered Humboldt’s Cow Tree, Brosimum utile, and many curious Orchids, which he introduced to Trinidad. During Lockhart’s time in charge of the gardens, special attention was given to the cultivation of spice trees and many plants were imported from Caracas and St Vincent.
Lockhart's successor was the Scotsman William Purdie. Previously a botanical collector for Kew, Purdie had explored the green riches of Jamaica and New Grenada. At the recommendation of Kew’s then Director, Sir William Hooker, Purdie succeeded Lockhart in 1846. Henry Prestoe followed Purdie as Superintendent in 1864. Many duplicate herbarium specimens sent from Lockhart, Purdie, and Prestoe were sent to Kew and used by the botanist August Henrich Rudolf Grisebach to write the descriptions for his Flora of the British West Indian Islands. This was the first of a series of floras initiated by Sir William Hooker at Kew, the publication of which increased knowledge of the vegetable products of the various Colonies.
A suitable man
Copious correspondence exists in the archives regarding the appointment of appropriately experienced gentlemen to roles in the garden at Trinidad (as well as appeals for understanding following disputes between employees!). These letters are contained in a series known as the Miscellaneous Reports, comprising 771 geographically arranged volumes containing materials primarily related to economic botany. A project to conserve and catalogue these fascinating records will begin at Kew next month and project staff will be blogging regularly about their work. We are excited to discover more about the varied content of these volumes.
In 1873 Presote wrote to the Colonial Secretary regarding the appropriate qualifications of a head gardener for Trinidad. These included a thorough practical knowledge of the use of garden tools, implements and materials; a good knowledge of tropical plants and their cultivation; good general knowledge of propagating plants; and knowledge of laying out flowered walks. By 1880 Prestoe added that the second gardener and botanical clerk “are required to be unmarried men, and it is indispensable that they be of sound and strong constitution and of steady temperate habits”.
All in a day's work
The work of the gardens was varied, and the presence of a busy herbarium demonstrates that the garden was also a scientific institution, not just a pleasure garden. By the turn of the century c.10,000 mounted specimens had accumulated. However, it is not just plants that seem to have been cared for, the Assistant Superintendent’s office is recorded as having contained several species of fungus growing ants including a nest of the famous parasol (leaf-cutter) ant! Reports on the timbers and forests of Trinidad were produced for the Colonial Secretary. There was a push to distribute and exchange plants, especially useful or edible species, and requests for coffee plants were frequent (Government Botanists also received money from the sale of plants towards their salary). The head gardener was expected to keep certain meteorological observations including rainfall records which provide a valuable set of climate data within the garden’s Annual Reports. A kitchen garden was at one time maintained, as was an entomological register, and plants were grown to decorate the Governor’s House, which was also situated within the garden.
John Hinchley Hart, Director of the garden from 1887–1908 produced a delightful Official Guide to the gardens (1895), which guides the visitor step by step through the gardens and contains many wonderful observations, for instance recording that the gardens opened at 6am and closed at sunset but were open on moonlit nights until 8pm.
As someone who spends much time pouring over correspondence, the following observation from an 1892 Annual Report made me smile, “the work of correspondence with similar establishments abroad has been regularly continued, and the number of missives dispatched during 1891 was 1,701. The gardens themselves being visited by 786 ladies and gentlemen who made more or less demands on our time”.
Fit for a Queen
The Annual Reports also record plants received from Kew, and Kew’s archives contain various Goods Inwards and Outwards volumes tracing these prolific exchanges. During his time as Superintendent, Henry Prestoe successfully transmitted fruit of the Mangosteen to England in 1875. The fruits were favourably reported upon and illustrated in the Gardener’s Chronicle, 20th Nov 1875 (see below), as likely to be of value as a dessert for English tables. Fruits of the Mangosteen were also presented to Her Majesty the Queen by the Governor of Trinidad, Sir Frederick Napier Broome in 1891, and are believed to have been the first seen on the Royal table.
