The Botanic Garden of Trinity College Dublin 1687 to 1987

Abstract

WYSE JACKSON, P. S., 1987. The Botanic Garden of Trinity College Dublin 1687 to 1987. The first botanic gardens in Europe were Physic Gardens. In Britain the earliest established was at Oxford (1621) and in Ireland at Trinity College Dublin (1687). Apart from a short‐lived garden at Harold's Cross the Physic Garden remained in the College until 1806 when land was leased at Ballsbridge. In 1804 James Townsend Mackay was appointed as gardener in the College, marking a change in the College to pure botany for the first time. The new Botanic Garden was created and cared for by Mackay for almost 60 years. He was succeeded as Curator in 1862 by John Bain, who was followed by Frederick Moore in 1877. In 1879 Moore succeeded his father David Moore as Curator of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin. Frederick W. Burbidge then came to the post of Curator from England in 1879. The Curatorship of the garden was abolished from 1905 to 1981, and the Professor of Botany became Director. In 1967, when the lease of the College's land at Ballsbridge was ending, a new Botanic Garden was established at Dartry and the valuable plant collection was transferred. Today‐it has a high national and international reputation and is widely used for botany teaching and research.

Flora Hibernica (1836): Its publication, and aftermath as viewed by Dr. Thomas Taylor

“…In 1984a considerable selection of correspondence was found in the School of Botany, Trinity College, Dublin, in some boxes which contained an herbarium connected with Flora Hibernica (Parnell & Webb, 1991); the letters included a series from Taylor (cf, Sayre, 1987) to Mackay who was Curator of the Trinity College Botanic Garden, at Ballsbridge, Dublin (cf. Jackson, 1987;Nelson, 1987Nelson, , 1989Nelson, , 1990. The letters reveal details of the publication of Flora Hibernica and its aftermath, as well as Taylor's opinions about botanical matters.…”