THE NATURALIST 
VOL. IV., NO. XXXII.—MAY, 1839. 
SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LIVERPOOL BOTANIC GARDEN. 
By T. B. Hall. 
In going through the Herbarium of the Liverpool Botanic Garden, for the 
purpose of obtaining information respecting the plants of that district, it occurred 
to me that a short notice of the Herbarium, as well as some account of the Garden, 
would not prove altogether uninteresting to the readers of The Naturalist , and I 
accordingly send you the rough notes which I made at the time, for your approval. 
The Garden was established by public subscription, in the year 1800, and 
opened in 1803. The proprietors purchased about ten statute acres of land at a 
convenient distance from the town; rather more than one-half of them were 
appropriated to the “uses of the Garden, and such was the rapid advance in 
the value of property in the vicinity of Liverpool, that the sale of the portion 
which was not required nearly repaid the purchase of the whole.” The disposition 
of the Garden was suggested by the late Wm. Roscoe, Esq.,* through whose 
zeal and active exertion in the dissemination of science, the encouragement of 
the fine arts, and the general improvement of the mind, this institution may be' 
said to have been founded. 
Liverpool may be considered a peculiarly favourable situation for an institution 
of this description, on account of the frequent and direct communication with 
different foreign countries, and consequently the facilities of transmission for seeds 
and plants. In 1824 Mr. Shepherd, the Curator, was the means of sending the 
Agricultural and Horticultural Society of Calcutta a splendid collection of English 
fruit-trees, the sum of £100 having been transmitted for that purpose by their 
Secretary, Dr. Wallich. A letter from the latter gentleman to Mr. Roscoe, 
dated f< Botanic Garden, Calcutta, Nov. 20, 1824,” states, that exactly 1,050 were, 
* Mr. Roscoe, previous to the opening of the Garden, May 3, 1802, delivered before the pro¬ 
prietors his address, consisting of an introductory lecture on the pleasures and advantages to he 
derived from the establishment of public Institutions devoted to the study of Botany. This 
address—which is considered an elegant composition—was printed at the request cf the proprietors, 
but it is now very scarce. 
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