{"id":2659,"date":"2025-04-16T10:29:57","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T10:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parastatal1.govmu.org\/ssrbg\/?page_id=2659"},"modified":"2025-04-16T10:30:28","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T10:30:28","slug":"avenue-john-horne-1835-1905","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ssrbg.govmu.org\/ssrbg\/?page_id=2659","title":{"rendered":"Avenue John Horne (1835\u20131905)"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Tenure as Director of the Garden (1877-1891)<\/em><\/p>

In 1861 John Horne was appointed Chief Gardener at the Jardin des Pamplemousses<\/em> on his return from a training placement at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. He was the Assistant to Director Charles Meller in 1866 and became Director of the Garden 10 years later.<\/p>

Horne\u2019s zeal and passion for his works lead him; as from 1865, to become unofficially responsible for the Garden as he had to replace Meller who was regularly absent from his post\u00a0 due to his\u00a0 frail and sickly nature.<\/p>

Consequently, John Horne made major improvements by converting barren lands to thoughtful cultivation, by extending the lawns and by adding new alleyways. He encouraged the use of stickers for the cataloguing of the plants present in the Garden.<\/p>

The collection of orchids was expanded and indigenous ferns were cultivated. In 1866, soil was brought remotely to fill up marshy areas and allow the creation of a rose garden. The rose collection consisted of more than 200 species, including new varieties.<\/p>

In between 1866 and 1869, new varieties of sugarcane from Java and Penang were accommodated in a new nursery. Other varieties from Trinidad, Guyana and Australia were also introduced in Mauritius.<\/p>

Amongst the extensive list of plants introduced by John Horne to the island are the popular Gumtree Hevea brasiliensis<\/em>, the Pinus sinensis <\/em>and the mahogany Swietenia mahagany<\/em>.The pods of the\u00a0 Pongamia glabra <\/em>became widely used by locals as a remedy for whooping cough.<\/p>

On 28 May 1870, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh paid visit to the Garden and made elogious comments to the well-established state of the Garden.<\/p>

By 1877, The Garden was considered as the most complete, the best maintained and the most beautiful in this part of the world aside the Royal Sydney Botanical Gardens. An influent cultivator coming from Ceylan even testified that Le Jardin des Pamplemousses<\/em> contained more elaborate varieties of plants and was more picturesque than India\u2019s prestigious garden found in Bangalore.<\/p>

In 1878, the limits of the Garden were extended and surrounded the estate of Mon Plaisir. A bridge was constructed on the Canal de Belle Eau<\/em> to facilitate access and a platform was installed along the railway line for the Garden\u2019s visitors.<\/p>

In 1881, the Garden were in a splendid state and the plants\u2019 stickers were bearing both respective scientific and popular names.<\/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":"

Tenure as Director of the Garden (1877-1891) In 1861 John Horne was appointed Chief Gardener at the Jardin des Pamplemousses on his return from a training placement at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. He was the Assistant to Director Charles Meller in 1866 and became Director of the Garden 10 years later. Horne\u2019s zeal and […]<\/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-2659","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssrbg.govmu.org\/ssrbg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2659","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=2659"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ssrbg.govmu.org\/ssrbg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2725,"href":"https:\/\/ssrbg.govmu.org\/ssrbg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2659\/revisions\/2725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssrbg.govmu.org\/ssrbg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}