Calcutta Botanical Garden 

‘Mr Brown also took me to see the botanic garden. It has a wonderful display of the vegetable kingdom, infinitely surpassing all I have seen before. There is a great Banyan tree, Ficus benghalensis. The ponds are covered with red, blue, and white water lilies, Nympheas, which are very beautiful when vapours rise from the ponds in the morning.’ This is a quote from The Claudians: gardens, landscapes, reason and faith: John Claudius Loudon and Claudius Buchanan, Tom Turner (Kindle, 2024).

More about Calcutta Botanical Garden 

The botanical collection was begun in 1786 by Colonel Robert Kyd, a British army officer and botanist, under the auspices of the Honourable East India Company (HEIC). It was initially founded as a horticultural and experimental garden to study and cultivate economically important plant species for commercial purposes. Early Development: Under Colonel Kyd's direction, the botanical garden began to flourish, with the introduction and cultivation of a wide variety of plant species from around the world. The garden played a crucial role in the introduction of exotic plants like tea, rubber, and cinchona to India, contributing to the development of the country's agriculture and economy.

There is no record of Claudius Buchanan visiting the garden but it was one of the sights of Calcutta and, with his interests in natural history and colonial agricultural development, his visiting the garden is a fair assumption.