THE BOTANICAL GARDENS AND HERBARIUM.
“_The spleen is seldom felt where Flora reigns._”
In the year 1711 there was a Lecturership of Botany in connection
with the Medical School of Trinity College, and there was
apparently a “Physic Garden” near the School, extending from
the Anatomy House towards Nassau Street, as seen on Rocque’s
Map (_ante_, p. 187). Dr. Nicholson was the first Lecturer;
he published a pamphlet of some 40 pages, entitled _Methodus
plantarum, in horto medico collegii Dublinensis, jamjam
disponendarum_, Dublini, 1712, which the writer has not seen. The
garden could not have been on a very large scale, but it would
appear to have supplied the needs of the School for over fifty
years, for it is not until during the Lecturership of Edward Hill
that we find that the garden was transferred to the neighbourhood
of Harold’s Cross, where it was in part the private property of
the Lecturer on Botany, but assisted by a grant in aid from the
College. Dr. Stubbs[172] tells us that “in 1801 a Curator was
appointed, and that in March, 1805, his salary was fixed at £130
yearly, out of which he was to employ two labourers all the year
round, and two additional labourers from March to December.”
Mr. Hill retired from the Lecturership in 1800, which, on the
passing of the Act 25 George III. (1785), “for establishing a
complete School of Physic in Ireland,” had been made into a
University Professorship. There was some difference of opinion
between Hill and the College authorities as to the value of the
plants and houses, and in the College accounts for 1803 there
occurs the following entry:--“Dr. Hill, allowed him by the award
of the arbitrators, to whom the cause between the College and him
concerning the Botany Garden was referred, £618 19s. 8d.”
The two last decades of the last century were noteworthy, from a
botanical point of view, for the immense interest that was taken in
Great Britain and Ireland about the cultivation of exotic plants;
the latter voyages of Captain Cook, and those of Captain Vancouver,
had, through the zeal of Banks, Solander, and Menzies--to mention
only a trio of the worthies of that period--been the means of
bringing to the Kew Gardens many most interesting plants; the
publication by Aiton of his _Hortus Kewensis_, a catalogue of the
plants cultivated in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, and of
Francis Bauer’s _Delineations of Exotic Plants_ cultivated in the
same gardens, had given a fresh impetus to their study, and from
about this date the period of the scientific Botanic Garden may be
said to date, and the day of the “Physic Garden” to end.
The subject of having a Botanical Garden in Dublin began to be
debated about 1789, and in 1790 the Irish House of Commons voted a
sum of £300 to the Dublin Society “in aid of the cost of providing
a Botanic Garden;” this Society, which took an active interest
in everything tending to promote the welfare of the country, at
once appointed a Committee, consisting of Drs. Perceval, Hill, and
Wade, to consider the question. Dr. Perceval had just retired from
the Secretaryship of the Royal Irish Academy. Dr. Hill was the
Dublin University Professor of Botany. Dr. Wade was the Lecturer
on Botany to the Dublin Society, and the author of the first
published catalogue of Dublin plants, and of _Plantæ rariores in
Hibernia inventæ_. On the report of this Committee, the Royal
Dublin Society resolved that letters should be written to the
University of Dublin and the College of Physicians requesting their
advice and assistance, and hoping that they would approve of the
measure and have money granted towards the scheme. This letter
was sent in June, 1791, and after the long vacation the Board of
Trinity replied through their Registrar as follows:--“That it
had been of a long time the anxious wish of the Board of Trinity
College to co-operate in any scheme by which a Botanic Garden may
be established on the most useful principles; that for this purpose
they had allocated an annual sum at present exceeding £100, and in
order to expedite the plan they had appointed a Select Committee
of the Senior Fellows, who were ready at the most convenient time
to meet any deputation from the Dublin Society and the College of
Physicians, and to report their proceedings to the Board.” At this
time the College of Physicians had not replied to the invitation of
the Dublin Society; but on December 8th, 1791, they also intimated
that they had appointed a Select Committee, consisting of Sir W. G.
Newcomen, Bart., Andrew Caldwell, and Patrick Bride, to consider
the subject.
What negotiations may have taken place during 1792 are not known,
but we find that in 1793 a Bill was brought in to the House of
Commons, by the Right Hon. the Secretary of State, “to direct the
application of certain sums of money heretofore granted towards
providing and maintaining a Botanic Garden to the Dublin Society,
and for the appointment of Trustees for that purpose;” whereupon
the Provost and Board of Senior Fellows presented the following
petition:--
“MARTIS, 11 DIE JUNII, 1793.
“A petition of the Provost, Fellows, and Scholars of the College,
under their common seal, was presented to the House and read,
setting forth, that the Petitioners and their predecessors have
for a long series of years used their best endeavours to promote
the study and improve the faculty of Physic in said College,
and considerable sums of money have been, and are annually and
otherwise applied by them for that purpose.
“That an Act having passed in this kingdom for the establishment
of a complete School of Physic, of which the University
Professors make a part, namely, the Professors of Botany,
Chemistry, and Anatomy, the petitioners, for the encouragement of
science, and without obligation from the charter or statutes so
to do, have continued to make a liberal provision for the support
of those professorships; that a Botanic Garden is indispensably
necessary for the success of that science, but the funds of said
College are totally inadequate to the establishment or support
of such an institution, they have exerted their utmost efforts
to promote it by allocating for that purpose a fund, which in
the last year amounted to £112, but which will be insufficient
for the establishment or maintenance of such an institution;
that the Legislature having been pleased to grant several sums
of money to the Dublin Society towards providing and maintaining
a Botanic Garden, that society caused application to be made to
the petitioners for their advice, assistance, and contributions,
and, as the petitioners are informed, applied to the College of
Physicians for the like purposes, and the members of the College
have, as far as in them lay, granted the annual sum of £100 for
the purpose out of funds vested in them for medical purposes; the
petitioners apprehend that by the application of the said several
funds, and by the co-operation of a certain number of persons out
of the said three bodies, the success of said scheme will be most
effectually promoted; that the copy of a bill for these purposes
having been laid before the petitioners, they are humbly of
opinion that the said bill, if passed into a law, would tend to
promote the success of the said institution, which they consider
as necessary to a complete School of Physic, and useful to the
University, and whatever regulations may be made in respect to
the said establishment, they humbly hope that the wisdom of the
Legislature will provide that medical and other students shall
have the full benefit of it, the petitioners having nothing in
view but their advantage, the success of said School of Physic,
and the advancement of science.
“Ordered, that the said petition be referred to the committee
of the whole House, to whom it was referred to take into
consideration a Bill for directing the application of certain
sums of money heretofore granted towards providing and
maintaining a Botanic Garden, and for the appointment of trustees
for that purpose.”[173]
A petition from the President and Fellows of the King’s and Queen’s
College of Physicians in Dublin, under the common seal, was
presented to the House and read, setting forth--
“That in the year 1758 the House was pleased to appoint a
committee to inquire into the best means for the establishment
of a complete School of Physic in this kingdom, and to refer
a petition from the petitioners for that purpose to the said
committee, before which several of said College were examined,
who, on such examination, declared their opinion that a Botanic
Garden was necessary to such an institution; and the said
committee was pleased to enter into a resolution to that effect:
that in the year 1790 the Legislature was pleased to grant to
the Dublin Society, towards providing and maintaining a Botanic
Garden, and the said society, &c.”[173]
It then proceeds in a manner similar to the petition from the
College, and it was ordered for consideration with it. With what
immediate result is not apparent; but on the 20th of June in the
next year (1794) the Dublin Society petitioned the Irish House
of Commons that “they might have the sole management of the sums
granted by Parliament for the purposes of a Botanic Garden, and
that such sums may not be invested in trustees contrary to the
grant already made to it, and further, that no other body may be
joined with said society in the execution of the trusts reposed in
it.”
The influence of the Society proved to be stronger in the House
of Commons than that of the University of Dublin or the College
of Physicians, and the Dublin Society was intrusted with the sole
management of the sums voted, and so the conjoint scheme ended.
The Dublin Society, in February, 1792, had appointed a Committee,
consisting of the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Lord Bishop
of Kilmore, Sir W. G. Newcomen, S. Hayes, Th. Burgh, And. Caldwell,
and Col. C. Eustace, with powers to take ground for a Botanical
Garden for the Society; and on the decision of the House of
Commons being known, the Society, on the 26th February, 1795, took
possession of sixteen acres of ground near the “town of Glasnevin,
which Major Tickell held by a Toties Quoties Lease from the Dean
and Chapter of Christ Church.”
In July, 1806, the Board of Trinity College took a lease of a small
piece of ground near Ball’s Bridge, about a mile from the College,
containing over three acres; in 1832 they acquired about two acres
adjoining in addition, alongside the Pembroke Road. In 1848 about
two acres more as a shelter belt along the Lansdowne Road were
added, so that the garden now consists of something more than
eight acres in all. The first-mentioned plot was surrounded by a
high wall, and in 1807 the laying out of the ground was commenced
by the newly-appointed Curator, J. T. Mackay. Some twenty years
after, we find Mackay writing as follows about “several foreign
plants naturalised under the climate of Ireland, chiefly in these
gardens”:--
“The College Botanic Garden, which was established in 1807, is
situated on the Black Rock road about half-a-mile from Dublin.
The soil is a deep sandy loam.
“It may be necessary to remark in order the degree of cold the
plants were subjected to. Although the winters in Ireland are in
general very mild, the intensity of the frost during the last
five winters has been occasionally very great, as in December,
1819, the thermometer once fell to 15° Fahr.; in January, 1820,
to 16° Fahr.; in February, 1821, to 16° Fahr.; in December, 1822,
to 25° Fahr.; in January, 1823, to 15° Fahr.; and on December 3,
1824, to 18° Fahr.”
He gives a list of thirty-seven plants, chiefly natives of
Chili, China, New South Wales, and the South of Europe, planted
in the open air, and among them “_Veronica decussata_, a native
of the Falkland Islands, the only shrubby species of the genus.
_Olea europea_, which was unprotected for the last seven years.
_Ligustrum lucidum_: one plant in the open border was now six
feet high [it is now twenty feet]. _Pittosporum tobira_, lately
introduced, stood without protection. _Solanum bonariense_ stood
planted near a wall. _Cassia stipulacea_ stood out by a wall, in
a south-east exposure, for the last eight years, and produced
copiously its showy blossoms in April and May, but required some
mat protection in severe weather. _Aristotelia Macqui_: one
specimen is now fourteen feet high; it retains its leaves in mild
winters, but drops them in spring before another set is produced.
_Mespilus japonica_ (Loquat) grows to a large size, retains its
leaves throughout the winter, but never flowers; and _Melaleuca
alba_ stood out on a south-east wall for the last five years, and
blossomed last summer.”[174]
James Townsend Mackay was the author of the _Flora Hibernica_,
published in Dublin in 1836. He was made an honorary LL.D. of the
University of Dublin in 1849. He was an excellent botanist, and
his name is still kept in grateful and pleasant memory in the
Gardens which he laid out, and which he so ably managed for over
forty years. Harvey named after him a beautiful acanthaceous
plant, _Mackaya bella_. On his decease Mr. John Bain was appointed
Curator, and on his retirement on an annuity Mr. Frederick Moore
was appointed, on whose succeeding his well-known father, Dr. David
Moore, in the care of the Botanical Gardens, Glasnevin, the post
was given to F. W. Burbidge, M.A.--about all of whom, as happily
still living, we cannot write.
The outer garden, which runs along two sides of the ground
originally enclosed, is surrounded by a lofty iron railing. This
space has been most judiciously planted with trees and shrubs.
Hollies in variety are especially luxuriant. Advantage has also
been taken of the wall, which is now covered with many choice
plants, among which may be mentioned fine plants of _Magnolia
grandiflora_, which in some years flower profusely; _Colletia
ferox_ and _C. cruciata_, large specimens of _Pyrus japonica_,
_Wistaria sinensis_, _Chimonanthus fragans_, _Choisya ternata_,
_Smilax latifolia_, and many such like.
The inner garden contains a well-arranged collection of the
principal natural orders of plants, a large stove-house, two
green-houses, an orchid and a fern house. Opposite one of the
green-houses there is a small pond, the water for which is brought
in from the River Dodder; but, in addition to this water-supply,
the garden has a supply under pressure from the City of Dublin
Water Works.
The Gardens are open during daylight to the officers and students
of the College, and to others on orders to be obtained from any of
the Fellows or the Professor of Botany. Lectures are delivered in
the Gardens during Trinity Term to the Medical School Class, and to
students working for the Natural Science Medal.
THE HERBARIUM.
Between 1830 and 1840 there was a small collection of plants kept
in presses in No. 40 College, which chiefly consisted of a series
of specimens gathered in Mexico and California by Dr. Coulter; but
it was not until 1844, when the late Dr. W. H. Harvey was appointed
Curator, while Dr. G. J. Allman was elected to the Professorship
of Botany, that the foundation of the present Herbarium was really
laid. Dr. Harvey, prior to 1841, had spent several years in an
official position at the Cape of Good Hope, where he had succeeded
in making large collections of the native plants, and he had from
time to time published (chiefly in Hooker’s _Journal of Botany_)
many descriptions of new and rare forms. Compelled by the state
of his health to return to Europe in the spring of 1842, in the
following year his health was sufficiently restored to make him
wish for some active employment. The Professorship of Botany became
vacant in 1843, and Harvey was a candidate. To qualify him for the
post, Harvey was made a M.D. _Honoris Causa_; but it was contended
that this was not sufficient, and that a properly qualified medical
man alone could occupy the chair. As a result, Allman was elected
to the Professorship, and the post of Curator of the Herbarium was
specially endowed for Harvey, who presented his collection of dried
plants to the College, and received some increased pay therefor,
with a proviso that, should other provisions be made, and that as a
result he were to lose the post, a certain sum that was agreed upon
should be paid to Harvey by the College. He entered upon his duties
in March, 1844, and for a little over twenty years the Herbarium
was yearly increased by his zeal and labour. In September, 1844,
we find a record of his adding 4,000 species at “one haul” to the
collection, from Sir W. Hooker’s duplicates; a few weeks later were
added 1,400 species from the interior of the Swan River Colony,
collected by Drummond. Soon the couple of rooms in No. 40 became
too small, and room after room was added until the whole of the
first or floor flat was filled. With this increase of specimens
came the necessary demands on the Bursar for money, not only to pay
for new plants, but for the necessary paper on which to mount them.
At first an annual sum of £10 was placed at Harvey’s disposal; then
on his urgent entreaties, supported by those of John Ball, who from
the first days of the Herbarium to the last of his own was ever a
faithful friend of Trinity College, this sum was increased to £30
(this to include the ten). Next we find serious objection taken
to a special charge of £34 for paper, and Harvey was obliged to
promise that he would be content if allowed to spend an average
annual sum of £10 on this most important adjunct to a Herbarium.
[Illustration: BOTANICAL GARDENS--THE POND. WINTER.]
In spite of all these little drawbacks, by the year 1850 the
Board’s confidence in Harvey had so increased, and the Bursar had
become so sympathetic, that we find a yearly sum of £108 paid
as Herbarium expenses, and collections were bought from Spruce,
Bowker, Wright, Fendler, Jameson, and many others.
The year 1858 was rendered notable by the purchase of Count
Limingan’s Herbarium for £237, the duplicates of which were
disposed of to the Melbourne University Herbarium and to the
Queen’s College, Cork. During 1849-50 Harvey visited the United
States, and by this visit greatly added to the College collections;
and his lengthened tour in Australia and the South Sea Islands
during 1853-55, chiefly made for the purpose of collecting _Algæ_,
resulted in making the College Herbarium so rich in these forms
that it has become a necessary resort for all students of this
group of plants, containing as it does the types as well as the
finest series of specimens collected by one who was during his
lifetime the chief authority upon these plants. Harvey died on
the 15th of May, 1866, at Torquay. To the very last the College
Herbarium was in his thoughts. To the writer of these lines he
dictated a letter, signed by him in pencil, and dated the 12th May,
1866, giving directions about certain packages of plants:--“The six
bundles of _Erica_ belong to the Cape Government Herbarium, and
should be put with the others in the box, so that they may not be
forgotten when the packing time comes. On the table you will find
in an old marble paper cover the MSS. of the new edition of the
_Genera of South African Plants_, which put by carefully, and which
Dr. Hooker will probably inquire about;” and so on with four pages
of last words, for the letter concludes, “I tell you all these
things because I never expect to see the Herbarium again, and I
wish to leave all things as straight as I can.”
In 1878 the Herbarium was transferred from No. 40 College, these
rooms being required for students, to the large room over the great
staircase leading to the Front or Regent’s Hall; but since then,
as no money is allowed for the purchase of new specimens, the
increase of the collection has depended exclusively on donations,
and some very generous ones have been received, among which may be
mentioned as among the more important those from Dr. Grunow, of
Vienna; Professor Farlow, of the Harvard University; Dr. E. Bornet,
of Paris; Professor A. G. Agardh, of Upsala; and Baron F. Mueller,
of Melbourne.
The general collection in the Herbarium is a fairly representative
one. There is still kept as a distinct collection the one made by
Harvey for the purpose of writing the _Flora Capensis_. The British
Collection is also kept by itself. There is a very fine series of
_algæ_ and of mosses, and a small collection of lichens and fungi.
A commencement has been made of a collection of woods, fruits, and
seeds in the Botanical Museum.
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FOOTNOTES:
[172] _History of the University of Dublin_ (1591 to 1800), p. 270.
[173] Taylor: _History of the University of Dublin_, pp. 101-2.
[174] _Dublin Philosophical Journal_, vol. i., 1825, p. 211.
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