{"id":1241,"date":"2024-06-14T05:55:18","date_gmt":"2024-06-14T05:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parastatal1.govmu.org\/ssrbg\/?page_id=1241"},"modified":"2024-08-13T07:33:47","modified_gmt":"2024-08-13T07:33:47","slug":"history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ssrbg.govmu.org\/ssrbg\/?page_id=1241","title":{"rendered":"History of the Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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In 1735, Mah\u00e9 de Labourdonnais was appointed as the French Governor of the island, then known as\u00a0 \u201cIsle de France\u201d. A year later, he\u00a0 purchased the estate of Mon Plaisir<\/em> and created a vegetable garden with the intention of \u00a0supplying vegetables to his household, to the town of Port Louis, and to passing \u00a0ships calling at Isle de France.\u00a0<\/p>

The Garden was also a nursery for the planting and acclimatization of plants of botanical and economic importance that were introduced\u00a0 from diverse parts of the world. Among the first major introductions was the Cassava (manioc) which Labourdonnais brought from Brazil to provide food for the population.<\/span><\/p>

From a modest origin as a vegetable garden, Mon Plaisir<\/em> was transformed into the oldest Botanical garden in the Southern Hemisphere under the leadership of many personalities.<\/p>

In 1739, the French East India Company took possession of Mon Plaisir<\/em> and shortly afterwards, almost the entire estate was planted with mulberry trees in the hope of establishing a silkworm industry. \u00a0<\/p>

This attempt proved unsuccessful and the mulberry trees were replaced by plantations of bois noir<\/em> (Albizia lebbeck<\/em>); whose charcoal \u00a0was used in the manufacture of gunpowder in the neighbouring gunpowder mill.<\/p>

From 1746 until 1753, Mon Plaisir<\/em> was virtually abandoned until the arrival of Jean Baptiste Christophe Fus\u00e9e-Aublet (1720-1778), a horticulturist, sent to Mauritius to establish a drug house and to create a botanical garden.\u00a0Fus\u00e9e-Aublet lived first at Mon Plaisir<\/em>, but was unhappy there and transferred all his plant collections to Le R\u00e9duit, the home of the Governor.<\/p>

In 1767, Pierre Poivre (1719-1786) was appointed Intendant of the island. Prior to this, he had travelled to Mauritius twice and also to the Moluccas, then under the control of the Dutch East India Company. He had smuggled thousands of spice plants and fruit trees into Mauritius\u00a0and\u00a0La R\u00e9union, in the hope of initiating commercial ventures.<\/p>

To achieve his goal, Poivre occupied Mon Plaisir<\/em> in his official capacity and in 1770 purchased the estate for himself.\u00a0 He was the creator of the present Garden, since in addition to a nursery for the acclimatization of the precious nutmeg and clove plants, he also collected numerous plants from other regions and as many indigenous plant species as he could.\u00a0<\/p>

In 1773, the Garden was sold to the French authorities.<\/span><\/p>

Nicholas C\u00e9r\u00e9 (1737-1810) a botanist, born in Pamplemousses, was\u00a0 appointed \u00a0Director of the Garden in 1775. He occupied this position until his death in 1810. C\u00e9r\u00e9 devoted his life and personal fortune to the Garden. He is buried in Pamplemousses cemetery and his tomb proclaimed National Heritage.<\/p>

As a result of the work of Poivre and C\u00e9r\u00e9, Pamplemousses became well-known to leading naturalists and acquired the worldwide fame it has since retained.<\/p>

In 1810 the British took over Mauritius. C\u00e9r\u00e9\u2019s son, Jean-Auguste C\u00e9r\u00e9 (1764\u00a0-1831) took over the management of the Garden from 1810 to 1812. He was second in command until 1823.<\/p>

In 1849, James Duncan was appointed Director of the Garden. He introduced several plants, including the bougainvill\u00e9e<\/em> \u00a0and many palms, among which was the Royal Palm (Reystonea regia)<\/em>.<\/p>

Some of the most famous names associated with the Garden include Charles Telfair, honorary supervisor of the Garden \u00a0from 1826 to 1829. In 1837, Wencelas Bojer, botanist, introduced many species of plants from Madagascar including the \u2018flamboyant\u2019 (Delonix regia<\/em>) and from Africa. He also wrote the first treatise on Mauritian flora entitled Hortus Mauritianus, <\/em>with a complex nomenclature in 1837.<\/p>

Other names associated with the management of the Garden are:<\/p>

  • William Augustus Burke (1812 – 1820)<\/li>
  • John White (1820 – 1826)<\/li>
  • John Newman (1826 – 1848<\/li>
  • James Duncan (1849 – 1866)<\/li>
  • Charles Meller (1866 – 1869)<\/li>
  • John Horne (1869 – 1892)<\/li>
  • William Scott (1892 – 1897)<\/li>
  • Joseph Th. Van. Keirsbilck 1897 \u2013 1903)<\/li>
  • Paul Koenig (1903 -1913)<\/li>
  • Charles O\u2019Connor (1913 -1917) (1924 -1944)<\/li>
  • Henry Julien (1944 – 1966)<\/li><\/ul>

    In 1913, the administration of the Garden was transferred to the newly-created Department of Agriculture. After independence in 1968, it was placed under the aegis of the Ministry of Agriculture, now the Ministry of Agroindustry and Food Security.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In 1735, Mah\u00e9 de Labourdonnais was appointed as the French Governor of the island, then known as\u00a0 \u201cIsle de France\u201d. A year later, he\u00a0 purchased the estate of Mon Plaisir and created a vegetable garden with the intention of \u00a0supplying vegetables to his household, to the town of Port Louis, and to passing \u00a0ships calling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1241","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssrbg.govmu.org\/ssrbg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssrbg.govmu.org\/ssrbg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssrbg.govmu.org\/ssrbg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssrbg.govmu.org\/ssrbg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssrbg.govmu.org\/ssrbg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1241"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/ssrbg.govmu.org\/ssrbg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2282,"href":"https:\/\/ssrbg.govmu.org\/ssrbg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1241\/revisions\/2282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssrbg.govmu.org\/ssrbg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}