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2016 Thomas Adrian Ethesis This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Calcutta Botanic Garden Knowledge Formation and the Expectations of Botany in a Colonial Context, 1833-1914 Thomas, Adrian Peter Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 04. Oct. 2021 Calcutta Botanic Garden: Knowledge Formation and the Expectations of Botany in a Colonial Context, 1833-1914 Adrian Peter Thomas Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD King’s College London, 2016 1 Calcutta Botanic Garden was founded in 1786 to acclimatise economic plants, but it quickly became the main institutional base for scientific botany in colonial India. However, it had to make a new start in 1833 after the Garden superintendent, Nathaniel Wallich, distributed its herbarium to botanists in Europe. The thesis shows how the revival of the scientific project to investigate and catalogue the south Asian flora was the main priority for Wallich’s successors, but depended on successful negotiation with the government. The central theme of the thesis is the tension between scientists, intent on their research, and sponsors, who need to demonstrate practical outcomes. It breaks new ground by focussing on how these issues were debated and resolved within a particular colonial scientific institution. It argues that the Garden was able to attract the resources it needed for its scientific work by responding appropriately to government pressures: although its achievements in economic botany were limited, it successfully highlighted them, regularly citing the introduction of tea and cinchona; it reinforced its case by managing its site in ways that reassured the government. The thesis also adds to our understanding of centre-periphery relationships. It argues that the Garden’s role as an important nodal point in the global botanic network was key to achieving its objectives. It shows how the Garden was strengthened by its mutually supportive relationship with Kew Gardens, based on the close bonds that botanists formed with each other. The thesis concludes by showing how, despite the Garden’s achievements, the government gradually lost faith in the ability of botany to contribute to economic progress in India; in the twentieth century it increasingly turned to more specialist disciplines and institutions. The thesis therefore suggests that further studies of scientific institutions would enhance our understanding of how science continued to support and validate imperial rule. 2 Contents List of Figures and Tables 6 Acknowledgements 9 Introductory Note 11 Introduction 21 The Garden superintendents and their identities 26 The formation and dissemination of botanical knowledge in India 31 Botany, imperialism and the expectations of the colonial regime 34 The structure of the thesis 41 Sources 42 Chapter One Situating Calcutta Botanic Garden 45 Conceptualising the Garden as a space and place 48 The place of the Garden in the networks it contributed to 52 Calcutta Botanic Garden and networks in India and the wider Indian Ocean world 59 The formation and communication of scientific and environmental knowledge through international networks 64 Using networks to exchange scientific and horticultural knowledge with local people, and to communicate with government officials 75 Conclusion 83 Chapter Two Botany and botanic gardens in India before 1833 85 Early European interest, crop transfer and the foundation 3 of Calcutta Botanic Garden 86 William Roxburgh and his immediate successors, 1793-1817 93 Nathaniel Wallich’s early years as Superintendent, 1817-1828 100 Conclusion 103 Chapter Three Inertia, experiment and the restoration of a scientific capability, 1833-71 107 Creating ‘a working scientific establishment’ 107 Wallich’s second period as Superintendent, 1833-46 110 Re-energising the Garden: the interventions of William Griffith and Joseph Hooker 126 The restoration of a scientific capability: Thomson and Anderson as superintendents 141 Conclusion 150 Chapter Four The culmination of the taxonomic project and changing government expectations, 1871-1914 153 Setting the agenda: the views of Kew and the Government of India 154 King’s first two decades, 1871-90 165 1890-1914: the reassessment of the Garden’s role 176 Conclusion 185 Chapter Five The utility of the garden 188 Plant transfer, natural resource policies and the Botanic Garden 190 Tea and other work in economic botany, 1820-60 195 Cinchona and other work in economic botany, 1860-1914 208 Conclusion 220 Chapter Six Demonstrating the Garden’s purpose: landscape, site management and visitor expectations 224 4 Settling the form of the Garden: landscape, site management and visitor expectations 225 Labelling 244 Responding to visitors: creating a site for instructive and healthy relaxation 247 The Garden as a commemorative site 253 Conclusion 259 Conclusion 261 List of Abbreviations 274 Bibliography 275 5 List of figures and tables Figures Introductory Note 1. Calcutta in relation to the Bay of Bengal. 11 2. The location of the Botanic Garden: an early nineteenth century print 12 showing the Superintendent’s house. 3. Calcutta in 1895, showing the location of the Botanic Garden. 13 4. Plan of the Botanic Garden. 1 4 Chapter One 5. The location and dates of nineteenth-century botanic gardens in 62 India (showing India’s borders as they were in the 1850s). Chapter Two 6. Carey’s editions of Roxburgh’s Hortus Bengalensis (1814) 97 and Flora Indica (1832). Chapter Three 7. Wallich in distinguished company: British Honorary Members of 114 the Botanical Society of Edinburgh. 8. Wallich’s tribute to William Griffith (and others) 121 in Volume Three of Plantae Asiaticae rariores in 1832. 9. The world of aristocratic patronage: some of the subscribers 123 to Wallich’s Plantae Asiaticae rariores. 10. Wallich’s prize specimen: Amherstia nobilis, drawn by Vishnu Prasad for 125 Plantae Asiaticae rariores, vol. I, and an example in the Garden in 2013. 11. Griffith’s legacy: copy of his 1843 Report annotated by two of 130 his successors (H. Falconer and A.T. Gage). 12. John Forbes Royle after he had retired to Britain. 132 13. Joseph Hooker in the 1850s. 136 14. Calcutta awash: watercolour by John Arthur Armstrong showing 148 Calcutta from the Strand during the cyclone of 5 October 1864. 6 Chapter Four 15. A rulebook for efficient administration: the Indian Forest Department 159 Code of Instructions, 1886. 16. A page from the Annals, and an illustration by Lakshman Singh. 172 Chapter Five 17. Carey’s continuing presence: the bust outside the 196 Agri-Horticultural Society’s offices in Kolkata. Chapter Six 18. A mid-twentieth century view of the Superintendent’s House. 226 19. The Superintendent’s house with Calcutta in the distance on the opposite 228 bank (hand-coloured aquatint by Robert Howell, after J. B. Fraser, 1824-8. 20. Science inscribed on the landscape: Griffith’s plans for order beds. 229 21. The development of the Garden: the map of 1816. 230 22. The development of the Garden: the 1845 map prepared by Griffith, 231 showing the layout of the Garden in the early 1840s. 23. The development of the Garden: the map of 1846. 232 24. One of the earliest photos: Calcutta Botanic Garden in the 1850s. 234 25. Lake in the Botanic Garden showing the effects of King’s 240 landscaping, still evident in 2013. 26. The Herbarium, completed in 1883. 242 27. Example of the labels being used at the Botanic Garden in 2013. 246 28. Calcutta Botanic Garden, Christmas Day 1908; preparing for Christmas 251 sports of the Calcutta associated tradesmen. 29. The first rules, issued by M’Clelland in 1847. 252 30. The monuments to Kyd and Roxburgh as they appeared in 2013. 254 31. The monuments to Nathaniel Wallich and William Jack. 256 32. The memorial to George King. 257 33. Map showing the names King gave to the Garden’s roads and avenues. 258 Figures 4, 8, 9, 10, 16, 18, 20, 28, 29 and 33 are reproduced with the kind permission of the Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; figures 2, 14, 19, 21, 22, 23 and 24 are © The British Library Board, and reproduced with their permission; figures 7, 11, 15 and 26 appear by courtesy of the Central National Herbarium, Kolkata; other photographs are by the author. 7 Tables Introductory Note 1. The Superintendents of Calcutta Botanic Garden, 1786-1925. 15 2. Calcutta Botanic Garden Senior Staff, 1833-1914, showing dates of service. 18 Chapter Two 3. Times when Wallich was absent from Calcutta 1817-33. 100 Chapter Five 4. The main strengths of the leading botanists who worked in India. 188 8 Acknowledgements Researchers embarking on a new project depend in equal measure on access to information, and on the support and enthusiasm of others.
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