The Role of Kew and Colonial Botanic Gardens

In the early 19th century, plants were taken from Sydney to Kew Gardens and beyond to test their potential as valuable new crops for the British Empire. A lecture by Jim Endersby, Visiting Professor of the History of Science 02 December 2019 6PM GMT https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-an... Sydney’s botanic garden, founded in the early nineteenth century, was expected to ship new plants “home” to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, from where they could be transplanted to other colonial gardens, to see if they could become valuable new crops to enrich the British Empire. Such plans had varying degrees of success, leaving botanists to question why specific plants would only grow in particular places. This lecture looks at how Kew addressed such questions, and the tensions between its role in the advancement of science, and as a public park.