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The Garden as a Source of Inspiration

In 1787 John Sibthorp was appointed Sherardian Professor at the Botanic Garden following the resignation of his father. Sibthorp was the original workaholic (unlike his father) and he travelled widely in Greece and the Aegean. However, it was on his travels through Northern Europe in 1790 that he collected the seed of the black pine tree Pinus nigra var. nigra that is now one of the largest trees in the Garden. He sent the seed back to his head gardener, John Foreman. The resulting sapling was planted out in 1800 by James Benwell making it the oldest specimen of this species in Britain. It has grown in to what could be described as the most inspirational tree in the Garden. It was the favourite tree of J.R.R. Tolkein and more recently it provided inspiration for Philip Pullman's Dark Materials Trilogy proving that plants can feed our minds as well as our bodies.

The Wonders of Biodiversity

The arrival of Charles Daubeny as Sherardian Professor of Botany in 1834 saw another major change in the Garden's fortunes. Daubeny was a contemporary of Charles Darwin, a passionate scientist and a very wealthy man. Perhaps Daubeny's most remarkable achievement at the Botanic Garden was the creation of the Water Lily House with its huge tank. In 1849 the Duke of Devonshire invited Daubeny to join a party of eminent botanists and horticulturists at Chatsworth House to come and see their plant of Victoria amazonica. This was the first time that the Victoria water lily had flowered in this country. As soon as Daubeny saw it he stated that he simply must have one and he returned to Oxford to build the Lily House and the tank. He successfully grew and flowered the Victoria in 1851 and then charged the people of Oxford a shilling to come and have a look. The people of Oxford not only stayed away but also wrote aggrieved letters expressing their concern at paying to see just one single plant. By 1859 we had stopped growing Victoria and the plant was not grown at Oxford again for almost 150 years. Today we grow Victoria cruziana enabling visitors of all ages to marvel at the large round 'pie dish' like leaves, strong enough to support a sitting child.

Creating a Living Library

Most of the plants in the Walled Garden are grown in the rectangular botanical family borders. These were first laid out in 1884 by Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour using his own adaptation of the Bentham and Hooker system of classifying plants. Throughout the twentieth century this piece of botanical history was preserved within our ancient walls and was used to teach undergraduates how plants may be classified. However, plant classification has moved on, especially in the last decade. The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, led by Professor Mark Chase of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, has used DNA fingerprinting and electron microscopy, in addition to Bentham and Hooker's data, to build an evolutionary tree for flowering plants. This new classification is now being used within the botanical family borders, in the teaching of taxonomy at the University of Oxford and in the Garden's Adult Education Programme.

The family borders are a fascinating way of discovering not only which plants are related to each other but also which botanical families are important in supplying us with food, fibres and medicines. In addition, they are a great place to discover examples of new plants to grow in our own gardens. As gardeners we have tried to plant up each of the borders combining botanical accuracy with aesthetics.

Garden History is continued on page 4