Royal Botanic Garden (Calcutta, India)

Founded by the East India Company in 1787, the Royal Botanic Garden in Calcutta, India, (now the Indian Botanic Garden) was one of the largest tropical gardens in the world during the nineteenth century, supporting a vast herbarium that became the core of the present day Central National Herbarium of India. Specializing in the native flora from all of the regions of India, the Garden was an important source for the cultivation of orchids, bamboos, and palms, and was an important supplier of plants to Kew and other European gardens. It remains an important center for botanical research.

From the guide to the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta Index, ca. 1830, (American Philosophical Society)