Cambridge University Botanic Garden

on Free School Lane was once the home to the Walkerian Garden. Eventually, the University built the Cavendish Laboratory here, but a small patch of garden has been planted with plants representative of the stock of the original garden. Walkerian Garden that inspired Isaac Newton to formulate his theory of gravitation After several unsuccessful attempts during the 16th, 17th, and early 18th centuries, a University Botanic Garden was finally established at Cambridge between 1760 and 1763. This was not on the site of the present Garden, but in the centre of the town, on about 5 acres of land then occupied by 'The Mansion House' of the old Augustinian friary, and today by the New Museums Site and other university buildings. It was Dr. Richard Walker, Vice-Master of Trinity College, who, on the advice of Philip Miller of the Chelsea Physic Garden, purchased the property for £1,600, and presented it to the University for use as a Botanic Garden. For some years the Garden was known as the Walkerian Botanic Garden, and there is, at the present Garden, a Walkerian Society named in honour of its founder. The Walkerian Garden was laid out and developed by the then professor of botany, Thomas Martyn. This small garden was conceived as a typical Renaissance physic garden, inspired by the Chelsea Physic Garden in London. It grew herbaceous plants used in the teaching of medical students at the university. Glasshouses and a lecture room for the professor were built and the teaching of botany in Cambridge, which was then at a low ebb, received, for a time, a considerable stimulus. This improvement, however, did not last for long. Martyn left in 1798 and visited Cambridge only occasionally until his death in 1825. About 1790 James Donn was appointed curator, and in 1796 he published the first edition of Hortus Cantabrigiensis, a list of the plants in the Garden which reached its 13th edition in 1845, long after Donn's death. Between 1954 and February 2022 the Botanic Garden was home to the Isaac Newton tree. The tree was blown down in Storm Eunice on 19 February 2022. ==Research==

The chair of botany at the University of Cambridge was created in 1724 for Richard Bradley (1724–1732). As of 2016, fifteen botanists have held that position, including John Martyn (1733–1762), John Stevens Henslow (1825–1861) and Harry Marshall Ward (1895–1906) (see list). In 1991 the Botany School was renamed the Department of Plant Sciences. In 2005 the title was changed to Regius Professor of Botany, the appointment as of 2016 is that of Professor Sir David Baulcombe. The current Plant Sciences building on the Downing Site was constructed in 1904 during Ward's tenure, when the main areas of research were morphology, systematics, pathology and physiology. Morphologists in that period included Agnes Arber, John Corner, and Kenneth Sporne, whose phylogenetic approach was well ahead of the seminal work of Willi Hennig. In 1921 the university appointed H. Gilbert-Carter as the first scientific director of the garden, in conjunction with the curatorship of the herbarium and who published the first guide to the garden. Amongst other directors of the garden were John Gilmour (1951–1973), and Max Walters (1973–1983) who published a history of the garden in 1981. The current director is Beverley Glover (2013–) (see list). The newly built Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University (SLCU) in the grounds of the garden is a highly collaborative and interdisciplinary new research institute. Focusing on the regulatory systems underlying plant growth and development, the Lab uses cutting-edge scientific resources and predictive computational models to further understand of the dynamic, self-organising properties of plants. It was funded by Lord Sainsbury, chancellor of the university, and opened by Queen Elizabeth II in April 2011. It houses the university herbarium, moved from the Downing Site in 2011. == Curators and directors of the botanic garden ==

The following people have been the curators and, since 1921 directors, of the botanic garden. • Charles Miller (1763-1770) • James Donn (1794-1813) • Arthur Biggs (1813-1845) • Andrew Murray (1845-1850) • James Stratton (1851-1864) • William Mudd (1864-1879) • Richard Irwin Lynch (1879-1919) • Humphrey Gilbert-Carter (1921-1950) title changed to Director • John Scott Lennox Gilmour (1951-1973) • Stuart Max Walters (1973-1984) • Christopher Donald Pigott (1984-95) • Beverley Glover (2013-present) == Garden features ==

behind. • Autumn colour garden • Bed of British native plants • Dry garden — demonstrates planting requiring reduced watering • Fen display • Genetics garden • Glasshouses, containing about 3,000 species, have been restored and almost entirely replanted to display global plant diversity, and comprise: • Continents Apart, comparing and contrasting the fire dependent, floristically rich plant communities of South Africa and SW Australia, once conjoined in the supercontinent Gondwana • Oceanic Islands, exploring the floral diversity peculiar to island archipelagos • Mountains, exploring how plants survive life in a cold climate • Tropical Rainforests, a hotbed of competition • Carnivores, displaying the diversity of traps in carnivorous plants • Arid Lands, displaying drought tolerant plants from continental Africa and the Americas, including many succulent and cactus species, and demonstrating the phenomenon of convergent evolution. • Life Before Flowers, full of ferns and filmy ferns. • Herbaceous borders • Garden Research Plots for various projects or growing single genera • Lake National plant collections of: • Alchemilla • Bergenia • European Fritillaria • Lonicera • Ribes • Ruscus • Saxifraga • Species Tulips • Hardy Geraniums • Important scientific and research collections of: • Lavender • Rock gardens — for alpine plants • Limestone rock garden • Sandstone rock garden • Scented garden • Systematic beds — 144 island beds representing 80 families of flowering plants • Tree collection • Water garden • Winter garden (December to April) • Woodland garden — containing spring bulbs Cory Lodge and Lawn Cory Lodge was built in 1924–5 with money given to the University by Reginald Cory, an alumnus of Trinity College, Cambridge and was originally used as the residence of the Director of the Botanic Garden. Adjacent to Cory Lodge is a superb specimen of Catalpa speciosa, an Indian bean tree from North America, with white flowers followed by long slender fruits. On the north wall of the house is a specimen of Ginkgo biloba, the Chinese maidenhair tree, trained as an espalier since 1987. == See also ==