Indian Botanical Gardens
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Indian Botanical Gardens are situated in Shibpur,Howrah near Kolkata. Previously they were known as Royal Botanic Garden.
The gardens exhibit a wide variety rare plants and a total collection over 12,000 specimens spread over 109 hectares. They are also famous for an enormous collections of orchids, bamboos, palms, and plants of the screw pine genus (Pandanus). The best-known landmark of the garden is The Great Banyan an enormous banyan tree (Ficus bengalhensis) that is reckoned to be the largest tree in the world, at more than 330 metres in circumference.
The gardens were founded in 1786 by the British East India Company, primarily for the purpose of acclimatizing new plants of commercial value and growing spices for trade. A major change in policy, however, was introduced by the botanist William Roxburgh after he became superintendent of the garden in 1793. Roxburgh brought in plants from all over India and developed an extensive herbarium. This collection of dried plant specimens eventually became the Central National Herbarium of the Botanical Survey of India, which comprises 2,500,000 items.
Over the years attractive display gardens for the public have been developed and many kinds of plants have been cultivated for scientific observation. During the 1970s the garden initiated a program to introduce improved food plants and other varieties of economic benefit to the people of India.
