You may have heard the term botanic gardens a lot. In fact, the oldest botanic garden in the UK is just near you, just at the heart of Oxford—Oxford Botanic Garden is founded in 1621 as a physic garden growing plants for medicinal research. It is also one of the oldest scientific gardens in the world.
However, today we are visiting an Arboretum. What's an Arboretum anyway? Listen to Ben Jones, who spent the last ten years as the Arboretum Curator, answering this big question.
What's an arboretum anyway? - Oxford Sparks
Listen to the podcast on YouTube. You can also subscribe the Oxford Sparks podcast channel 'Big Questions' on iTunes or Spotify.
Harcourt Arboretum was found in 1835 and then became part of the University of Oxford in 1963. It was originally laid out by William Sawrey Gilpin. It contained some of the oldest redwoods in the UK as well as early introductions from the Pacific North West region of North America.
An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees. More commonly, a modern arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants and is intended at least in part for scientific study. The term arboretum was first used in an English publication by John Claudius Loudon in 1833 in The Gardener's Magazine but the concept was already long-established by then.
(from Wikipedia)
The concept of an arboretum dates back in the ancient civilisation of Egypt. Egyptians transplanted many different foreign trees as an exotic collection to honour the Pharaohs. These include ebony wood from the Sudan, and pine and cedar trees from Syria. Hatshepsut made the first recorded attempt to transplant foreign trees: she brought thirty-one live frankincense trees from Punt and planted them in her Deir el Bahri temple.
The Botanical garden of Thutmose III (1479–1425 BC) has a large sanctuary, with its wall engraved with beautiful and detailed cravings of different plants and animals
Hatsheput (1479–1458 BC) may be the frontier of arebota for being the first person to transplant exotic trees.
However, it is rather unclear what the first arboretum is. After all, the term 'arboretum' is only coined in the late 18th century: the landscape gardener and writer John Claudius Loudon (1783–1843) published many significant work on trees in British history and climate. His gardening philosophy was to display individual plants as specimens and grouped and labelled trees in informal groves, so that they can develop their natural form. An early example of European tree collection is the Trsteno Arboretum in Croatia. Its founding date is unknown but some time earlier than 1492.
Neptune's fountain at Trsteno Arboretum, erected in the late 15th century by the local noble family Gucetic - Gozze.
I must put it out first, that Hong Kong does not have an arboretum. However, there is a great scientist who worked in a world-renowned arboretum and dedicated her life in botanical research in Hong Kong. That is Professor Shiu-Ying Hu 胡秀英.
Hu was born in Xuzhou, China in 1910 and later pursued her PhD at the Harvard University. In 1949 she became the second Chinese woman to receive a doctoral in botany from Harvard, in the years when China was closed to outsiders and foreign scientists. She was the bridge between Chinese and American botanical research.
"Whenever they needed some literature-at that time we didn’t have Xerox machines—I photographed them, or I microfilmed, or some I typed, so whatever material they needed in their work, I sent it to them. This has made many people know that there is a Chinese botanist at Harvard."
After working at the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard after her PhD, she joined the Department of Biology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong until her retirement in 1975—but she still worked till her very last days. She collected over 30,000 specimens in her career, extensively in the holly plants. She was thus nicknamed "Holly Hu".
Professor Hu (1910–2012) became the Emeritus Senior Research Fellow of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.
[World-renowned composer John Williams attributed the first movement of his TreeSong for Violin and Orchestra (2000) to Hu, titled 'Doctor Hu And The Meta Sequoia'.
Listen to this music on YouTube while walking through the Arboretum.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt75omZwLLY)
World-renowned composer John Williams attributed the first movement of his TreeSong for Violin and Orchestra (2000) to Hu, titled 'Doctor Hu And The Meta Sequoia'.
Listen to this music on YouTube while walking through the Arboretum.