No visit to Bangalore
would be complete without walking around Lalbagh ,
India ’s most
famous botanical garden. But did you know that this was almost precisely the
same words that BL Rice (1837-1927) wrote when he visited Bangalore and wrote the gazetteer.
Rice was in Bangalore to compile facts for his gazette.
He went around the city and he has given us a detailed description of Bangalore and its
environs.
He says horticulture in the
State and Bangalore in particular received a
boost with the establishment of the Agri-Horticultural society in Bangalore in 1839.
Horticulture received a further
boost when Lalbagh was declared as a horticultural and botanical garden in 1856.
Rice says the Lalbagh helped
growers and horticulturists of Bangalore
make a profitable living.
The Lalbagh inspired many
Indian and European growers and farmers to take up horticulture and
floriculture. Both the Lalbagh and growers imported seeds and plants directly
from England
and other places.
Rice says Roses were the most
favoured flowering plant to be imported into Bangalore . He says the authorities at Lalbagh
took care to grow 258 varieties of roses, 160 kinds of ferns, 122 varieties of
crotons and a large number of ornamental and flowering plants including orchids
and creepers.
The Lalbagh thus took the
initiative in introducing several new varieties of plants and fruit bearing
trees in the State. Besides, it imported scores of species of plants and trees
and encouraged the growth of horticultural crops.
Rice says Lalbagh imported
from South America, varieties such as Achras
Sapota (which is widely used in medicine), Eucharis Grandiflora, Allamanda
Grandiflora and from north America it imported
Magnolia Grandiflora, rubra, phlox paniculata.
Plants and tree such as AgapanthusUmbillatus, Mellanthus Major, Ganzia Splendens were
imported from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa .
Lalbagh also imported from
the South Sea islands, Acalypha tricolour and Crotons, while the Castanospermum
funebris, Aslophila latebrosa and coccoloba plotyclada came from Australia .
The Cupressus funebris, farfugium
grande, alternathera sessilis all came from China ,
The Anagalis carrulea, viola
odorata, myosotis arvenis came from England
and from Mexico came Fuchsia
fulgens, ageratum mexicanum and agave Americana .
Rice found all these species
growing in the Lalbagh. He says no account of Bangalore would be complete without a notice
of Lalbagh. “This beautiful garden, situated a mile to the east of the fort, appears
to have been first laid out in the time of Hyder Ali and enlarged in the time
of Tipu Sultan”.
He then goes on to mention
the description of Lalbagh in 1800 by Buchanan.
Rice says that Lalbagh has a
rare and valuable collections of tropical, sub-tropical pants together with
indigenous and foreign fruit bearing trees, He says this stock is constantly
replenished by exchanges and donations. He says the Lalbagh was extended and it
covered a little more than 100 acres.
He also mentions that a
spacious glass house has been constructed. He then goes on to mention that a
native artist has been hired to paint coloured drawing of all plants.
Thus, we see that Lalbagh
even a century ago was the center of attraction and people visited it in large numbers
even then. It was a cynosure of all eyes then and has continued to remain so
even centuries later.
By the way, all the shrubs,
plants and trees mentioned by Rice still continue to flourish in Lalbagh. Care
to take a look. Then head to Lalbagh.
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