Dominica Botanical Gardens
Open-knowledge reference entry
Dominica Botanic Gardens is located on the Caribbean island-nation of Dominica, in the capital of Roseau. Once known as one of the finest botanical gardens in the region, it was severely damaged by Hurricane David in 1979. Following restoration efforts, it remains a focus of cultural life in Roseau, and a center of conservation research on Dominica.
History
The Botanic Gardens were established when Dominica was still a colony in the British Empire. The Crown Government began planning the gardens in 1889, with the goal of encouraging crop diversification and to provide farmers with correctly propagated seedlings. The 16 hectares of land, formerly a sugar plantation within Bath Estate, was sold to the government in 1891 by its owner, William Davies.
Planting of the gardens began in 1890. Its first curator was Charles Murray of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. He was soon replaced by Henry F. Green, who planned and laid out the grounds. Joseph Jones took over its management in 1892, and remained involved throughout his life; Jones would also become the first Superintendent of the Imperial Department of Agriculture for the West Indies in 1898.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dominica Botanical Gardens” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.