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The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is a scientific centre for the study of plants, their diversity and conservation, as well as a popular tourist attraction. Founded in 1670 as a
physic garden A physic garden is a type of herb garden with medicinal plants. Botanical gardens developed from them. History Modern botanical gardens were preceded by medieval physic gardens, often monastic gardens, that existed by 800 at least. Gardens o ...
to grow medicinal plants, today it occupies four sites across Scotland—
Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
, Dawyck,
Logan Logan may refer to: Places * Mount Logan (disambiguation) Australia * Logan (Queensland electoral district), an electoral district in the Queensland Legislative Assembly * Logan, Victoria, small locality near St. Arnaud * Logan City, local gov ...
and Benmore—each with its own specialist collection. The RBGE's living collection consists of more than 13,302 plant species (34,422 accessions),Rae D. et al. (2012) Catalogue of Plants 2012. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. whilst the
herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (calle ...
contains in excess of 3 million preserved specimens. The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is an
executive non-departmental public body In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process of ...
of the Scottish Government. The Edinburgh site is the main garden and the headquarters of the public body, which is led by Regius Keeper
Simon Milne Simon Stephen Milne (born January 1959) is a British marine officer and conservationist who has been Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh since 2014. Early life and military career Born in 1959, Milne was educated at the Unive ...
.


History

The Edinburgh
botanic garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...
was founded in 1670 at St. Anne's Yard, near
Holyrood Palace The Palace of Holyroodhouse ( or ), commonly referred to as Holyrood Palace or Holyroodhouse, is the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland. Located at the bottom of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, at the opposite end to Edinburgh ...
, by Dr. Robert Sibbald and Dr.
Andrew Balfour Sir Andrew Balfour (21 March 1873 – 30 January 1931) was a Scottish Medical Officer who specialised in tropical medicine. Balfour spent twelve years in Khartoum, Sudan and was the Medical Officer of Health in the city. As well as writing me ...
. It is the second oldest botanic garden in the UK after Oxford's. The plant collection used as the basis of the garden was the private collection of Sir Patrick Murray, 2nd Lord Elibank, moved from his home at Livingston Peel in 1672 following his death in September 1671. The original site was "obtained of John Brown, gardener of the North Yardes in the Holyrood Abby, an inclosure of some 40 foot of measure every way. By what we procured from Levingstone and other gardens, we made a collection of eight or nine hundred plants yr." This site proved too small, and in 1676 grounds belonging to Trinity Hospital were leased by Balfour from the City Council: this second garden was sited just to the east of the Nor Loch, down from the High Street.
John Ainslie A plaque in Castlegate in Jedburgh John Ainslie (22 April 1745 – 29 February 1828) was a Scottish surveyor and cartographer. Life Ainslie was born in Jedburgh, the youngest son of John Ainslie, a druggist, Writer to the Signet and burgess of ...
's 1804 map shows it as the "Old Physick Garden" to the east of the North Bridge. The site was subsequently occupied by tracks of the
North British Railway The North British Railway was a British railway company, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1844, with the intention of linking with English railways at Berwick. The line opened in 1846, and from the outset the company followe ...
, and a plaque at platform 11 of the Waverley railway station marks its location. In 1763, the garden's collections were moved away from the city's pollution to a larger (five acre) "Physick Garden" on the west side of
Leith Walk Leith Walk is one of the longest streets in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is the main road connecting the centre of the city to Leith. Forming most of the A900 road, it slopes downwards from Picardy Place at the south-western end of the street to t ...
, covering the area now called Bellevue, all under the control of Prof John Hope. This site is shown in Ainslie's 1804 map. The site is today known as Hopetoun Crescent Gardens and is one of the collection of
New Town Gardens The New Town Gardens are a collection of around 30 mostly private gardens and parks within the Edinburgh New Town, Edinburgh, New Town Conservation area (United Kingdom), Conservation Area spread across the New Town and north of the West End, Edinb ...
. Some time prior to Hope's death (1786) he was brought Turkish
rhubarb Rhubarb is the fleshy, edible stalks ( petioles) of species and hybrids (culinary rhubarb) of '' Rheum'' in the family Polygonaceae, which are cooked and used for food. The whole plant – a herbaceous perennial growing from short, thick rhi ...
seeds by
Bruce of Kinnaird James Bruce of Kinnaird (14 December 1730 – 27 April 1794) was a Scottish traveller and travel writer who confirmed the source of the Blue Nile. He spent more than a dozen years in North Africa and Ethiopia and in 1770 became the first Euro ...
and this was the first rhubarb grown in Great Britain. As this proved successful over 3000 plants were grown as rhubarb was previously an expensive import (used as a medicine). A cottage from the garden's original site remained on Leith Walk for over one hundred years. In 2008, the building was moved brick by brick to a site within the current gardens. The project was completed in 2016. The garden was a popular destination for botanists and supplied plants to other gardens such as Kew. Hope erected a monument to
Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...
on the site in 1778. In the early 1820s under the direction of the Curator, William McNab, the garden moved west to its present location (adjacent to Inverleith Row), and the Leith Walk site was built over between Hopetoun Crescent and Haddington Place. The Temperate Palm House, which remains the tallest in Scotland, was built in 1858. In 1877, the city acquired
Inverleith House Inverleith House is a historic house, now within the Royal Botanic Garden, in the suburb of Inverleith, in Edinburgh, Scotland. History Inverleith House was designed in 1773 by David Henderson and built for James Rocheid in 1774. In about 182 ...
from the estate of
Cosmo Innes Cosmo Nelson Innes FRSE (9 September 1798 – 31 July 1874) was a Scottish advocate, judge, historian and antiquary. He served as Advocate-Depute, Sheriff of Elginshire, and Principal Clerk of Session. He was a skilled decipherer of ancient ...
and added it to the existing gardens, opening the remodelled grounds to the public in 1881. The botanic garden at Benmore became the first Regional Garden of the RBGE in 1929. It was followed by the gardens at
Logan Logan may refer to: Places * Mount Logan (disambiguation) Australia * Logan (Queensland electoral district), an electoral district in the Queensland Legislative Assembly * Logan, Victoria, small locality near St. Arnaud * Logan City, local gov ...
and Dawyck in 1969 and 1978.


Notable staff and residents

* John Hope, Keeper of the Leith Walk site * John Mackay (1772-1802), laid out the Leith Walk site *Dr
William Roxburgh William Roxburgh FRSE FRCPE FLS (3/29 June 1751 – 18 February 1815) was a Scottish surgeon and botanist who worked extensively in India, describing species and working on economic botany. He is known as the founding father of Indian botany. ...
, Keeper in 1814 *
Francis Buchanan Francis Buchanan (15 February 1762 – 15 June 1829), later known as Francis Hamilton but often referred to as Francis Buchanan-Hamilton, was a Scottish physician who made significant contributions as a geographer, zoologist, and botanist whil ...
, Keeper from 1814 to 1829 *
Cosmo Innes Cosmo Nelson Innes FRSE (9 September 1798 – 31 July 1874) was a Scottish advocate, judge, historian and antiquary. He served as Advocate-Depute, Sheriff of Elginshire, and Principal Clerk of Session. He was a skilled decipherer of ancient ...
, original owner of Inverleith House *
Daniel Rutherford Daniel Rutherford (3 November 1749 – 15 December 1819) was a Scottish physician, chemist and botanist who is known for the isolation of nitrogen in 1772. Life Rutherford was born on 3 November 1749, the son of Anne Mackay and Professor John ...
, Keeper * William Wright Smith, Regius Keeper * Robert Graham, Regius Keeper * Roland Edgar Cooper, curator * George Taylor, director * John Hutton Balfour, lived in Inverleith House * Isaac Bayley Balfour, linked to site * William Evans, born here (son of William Wilson Evans, Curator) * Harold Roy Fletcher, Regius Keeper * William Gregor MacKenzie, Curator, Chelsea Physic Garden * Matthew Young Orr, botanist *
Douglas Mackay Henderson Douglas Mackay Henderson CBE FRSE FLS (30 August 1927 – 10 November 2007) was a Scottish botanist, the 12th Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh from 1970 to 1987. Life He was born in Blairgowrie on 30 August 1927, the second ...
, 12th Regius Keeper


The garden at Edinburgh

The Botanic Garden's main site in Edinburgh is a hugely important player in a worldwide network of institutions seeking to ensure that
biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic ('' genetic variability''), species ('' species diversity''), and ecosystem ('' ecosystem diversity'') ...
is not further eroded. Located one mile from the city centre it covers . The RBGE is actively involved in, and coordinates numerous
in situ ''In situ'' (; often not italicized in English) is a Latin phrase that translates literally to "on site" or "in position." It can mean "locally", "on site", "on the premises", or "in place" to describe where an event takes place and is used in ...
and
ex situ conservation Svalbard GLOBAL SEED BANK, an ''ex situ'' conservation. ''Ex situ'' conservation literally means, "off-site conservation". It is the process of protecting an endangered species, variety or breed, of plant or animal outside its natural habitat ...
projects both in the UK and internationally. The three main cross-cutting themes of scientific work at the RBGE are: Scottish
Biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic ('' genetic variability''), species ('' species diversity''), and ecosystem ('' ecosystem diversity'') ...
, Plants &
Climate Change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
, and
Conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and manageme ...
. In addition to the RBGE's scientific activities the garden remains a popular destination for both tourists and locals. Locally known as "The Botanics", the garden is a popular place to go for a walk, particularly with young families. Entrance to the botanic garden is free, although a small entry charge exists for the glasshouses. During the year the garden hosts many events including live performances, guided tours and exhibitions. The RBGE is also an important centre for education, offering taught courses across all levels. In 2009, the John Hope Gateway was opened. John Hope was the first Regius Keeper of RBGE.


Living collection

Nearly 273,000 individual plants are grown at the Botanics in Edinburgh or its three smaller satellite gardens (known as Regional Gardens) located in other parts of Scotland. These represent around 13,300 species from all over the world, or about 4% of all known plant species. The RBGE Living Collection catalogue is availabl
here
and updated nightly. Some notable collections at the botanic garden Edinburgh include: *
Alpine Plants Alpine plants are plants that grow in an alpine climate, which occurs at high elevation and above the tree line. There are many different plant species and taxa that grow as a plant community in these alpine tundra. These include perennial grasses, ...
*Chinese Hillside * Cryptogamic Garden *The Glasshouses **Palmhouse ***Temperate Palms ***Tropical Palms **Orchids and Cycads **Ferns and Fossils **Plants and people (including Giant Water Lily pond) **Temperate lands **Rainforest Riches **Arid Lands **Montane tropical house (including
Carnivorous plant Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans, typically insects and other arthropods. Carnivorous plants still generate some of their energy from photosynthesis ...
s) **Wet Tropical House *Peat Walls *The Queen Mother's memorial garden. *Rock Garden *Scottish Heath Garden *Woodland Garden


Herbarium

The RBGE
herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (calle ...
(situated in a purpose built facility at the Edinburgh site) is considered a world-leading botanical collection, housing in excess of 3 million specimens. Prior to the formation of the Herbarium, plant collections tended to be the private property of the Regius Keeper. The Herbarium in its present form came with the fusion of the collections of the
University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1 ...
and the
Botanical Society of Edinburgh The Botanical Society of Scotland (BSS) is the national learned society for botanists of Scotland. The Society's aims are to advance knowledge and appreciation of flowering and cryptogamic plants, algae and fungi. The Society's activities includ ...
in 1839–40. RBGE's Herbarium moved into its present, purpose-built home in 1964. Over the years, a large number of collections have been added, belonging to individuals such as R.K. Greville and John Hutton Balfour, and institutions including the Universities of
Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...
,
St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourt ...
and
Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...
. The most important historical collection is that of George Walker Arnott, which came with the University of Glasgow's foreign herbarium deposited on permanent loan in 1965. This collection contains specimens from all the major mid-19th century collectors, especially from India, North and South America, and South Africa, including type material of species described by 'Hooker & Arnott'. From the early 20th century, collections have been made by members of staff. The approx 33% of the herbarium that has been databased is searchabl
here
The ''
Index Herbariorum The Index Herbariorum provides a global directory of herbaria and their associated staff. This searchable online index allows scientists rapid access to data related to 3,400 locations where a total of 350 million botanical specimens are p ...
'' code assigned to the RBGE herbarium is E and it is used when citing housed specimens.


Library

RBGE's Library is Scotland's national reference collection for specialist botanical and horticultural resources. Housing around 70,000 books and 150,000 periodicals, the research library is one of the country's largest. It has been built up to support the specific subject fields researched and taught at RBGE. Garden staff and students are its main users, along with visiting researchers. However, as a national reference collection, the Library is also open to members of the public, either in person or by telephone or e-mail.


Inverleith House

Inverleith House is an 18th-century building, located centrally in the modern botanic gardens. From 1960 to 1984 it was the original base of the
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art is part of the National Galleries of Scotland, which are based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The National Gallery of Modern Art houses the collection of modern and contemporary art dating from about 1900 to th ...
, with exhibits in the house and in the gardens, before it moved to larger premises in Belford Road. Since then, Inverleith House has functioned as a contemporary art gallery, showing a programme of temporary exhibitions by invited artists. Its spring programmes feature works and specimens from the historical collections of the Botanics, together with exhibitions by modern and contemporary artists. The gallery is curated by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.


Regional specialist gardens


Benmore

Situated on the West Coast of Scotland, Benmore Botanic Garden experiences a wetter and milder oceanic climate than the main site in Edinburgh. Benmore grows trees and shrubs from high rainfall areas, especially conifers and rhododendrons. Highlights of the collection include an avenue of
Sequoiadendron ''Sequoiadendron'' is a genus of evergreen trees, with two species, only one of which survives to the present: * ''Sequoiadendron giganteum'', extant, commonly known as wellingtonia, giant redwood and giant sequoia, growing naturally in the Sierr ...
and a recently refurbished Fernery, exhibiting rare ferns from both Britain and abroad.


Dawyck

Situated to the south of the Scottish Border town of
Peebles Peebles ( gd, Na Pùballan) is a town in the Scottish Borders, Scotland. It was historically a royal burgh and the county town of Peeblesshire. According to the 2011 census, the population was 8,376 and the estimated population in June 2018 wa ...
, Dawyck Botanic Garden is particularly suitable for hardy plants from the world's cooler, drier areas. Dawyck is also renowned for its high diversity of
fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately fr ...
and
cryptogam A cryptogam (scientific name Cryptogamae) is a plant (in the wide sense of the word) or a plant-like organism that reproduces by spores, without flowers or seeds. The name ''Cryptogamae'' () means "hidden reproduction", referring to the fact ...
ics.


Logan

Logan, Scotland's most exotic garden, has an almost sub-tropical climate, and provides ideal growing conditions for southern hemisphere plants.


Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Medal

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Medal, instituted in 2010, is awarded from time to time to recognise an outstanding individual contribution in any field related to the work of the RBGE (either by a member of staff or by any other person). The medal, struck in silver, has a sibbaldia motif on one face and a portrait of Robert Sibbald on the other. *2010: Edward Kemp *2011: Sir Tim Smit *2013: Vernon H. Heywood *2015: Peter H. Raven


Gallery

File:Edinburgh gardens 1990 11.jpg, The Rock Garden, circa 1990 File:Edinburgh Botanic Garden (39369698954).jpg, Trees in autumn File:Maison Inverleith Jardin Botanique Royal Édimbourg 6.jpg, Inverleith House File:The Royal Botanic Garden (3414543925).jpg, View of the pond File:Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh East gate.jpg, East Gate of the Garden File:West Gate entrance to Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Gardens 01.jpg, West Gate entrance to the Garden File:CaledoniaHall.jpg, Caledonia Hall File:RBGE Palm House interior 04.jpg, Interior of the Palm House File:Edinburgh Botanics seat.jpg, Seat in Edinburgh Botanics File:Benmore.jpg, The avenue of Giant Redwoods at Benmore


See also

* Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society * DoCoMoMo Key Scottish Monuments *
Gardens in Scotland Gardening in Scotland, the design of planned spaces set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature in Scotland began in the Middle Ages. Gardens, or yards, around medieval abbeys, castles and houses were ...
*
List of botanical gardens in the United Kingdom Botanical gardens in the United Kingdom is a link page for any botanical garden, arboretum or pinetum in the United Kingdom. England Berkshire *Harris Garden, University of Reading, Reading Birmingham * Birmingham Botanical Gardens *Winterbour ...
*
List of Category A listed buildings in Edinburgh This is a list of Category A listed buildings in Edinburgh, Scotland. This list contains all buildings outside the New Town and Old Town areas; those can be found at List of Category A listed buildings in the New Town, Edinburgh and List of ...
*
List of post-war Category A listed buildings in Scotland __NOTOC__ This is a list of Category A listed buildings in Scotland which date from after 1945 (the post-war period). The majority of these buildings are examples of Brutalist architecture or related modernist architecture which was ambitiously ...
* Prospect 100 best modern Scottish buildings


References


External links

*
Edinburgh Journal of Botany / Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
at
HathiTrust HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries including content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digitized locall ...
Digital Library
Edinburgh Journal of Botany
at
SCImago Journal Rank The SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) indicator is a measure of the prestige of scholarly journals that accounts for both the number of citations received by a journal and the prestige of the journals where the citations come from. Rationale Citati ...

Botanical Scientific Journals
{{Authority control Parks and commons in Edinburgh
Botanic Garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...
Gardens in Edinburgh Tourist attractions in Edinburgh 1670 establishments in Scotland Book publishing companies of Scotland Libraries in Edinburgh Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes