CHAPTER XI.

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.

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.

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.