To John Scott [after 8 January 1868]1
Dear Sir—
As you have asked my opinion, on the advantages of removing the C.B.G. to some other site,2 I have no hesitation in expressing a clear answer that numerous & great benefits wd be conferred on science by this step— I have always understood that the present Gardens stand at an extremely low level; & are therefore obviously unfitted for the culture of many plants as the conditions of life cannot fail to be of a [illeg] nature I conceive the chief advantage of a B.G. is to favor the importation & naturalisation of plants. plants foreign to the country where the Garden is established & the exportation of indigenous plants cultivated in the garden to other countries; with this aim as well as for the general scientific & experiment wd be an immense advantage if the Garden were situated near the Himalaya, so that plants requiring different climate, soil & [nutrients] could be observed cultivated & propagated.3
As the garden has now been so [relatively cleared] away seems particularly favourable opportunity for any change., which may be delivered
I beg leave to remain | Dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | C. D.
Footnotes
Bibliography
McCracken, Donal P. 1997. Gardens of empire: botanical institutions of the Victorian British empire. London and Washington: Leicester University Press.
Summary
Supports relocating the Calcutta Botanic Garden to a site near the Himalayas.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5352
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- John Scott
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 177: 116v
- Physical description
- ADraftS 1p (on 5351)
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5352,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5352.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16