“Her Highness”, the Giraffe given to Charles X by the Viceroy of Egypt, by Nicolas Huet the Younger (1827)
I looked in the last post at the early history of Paris’s principal botanic garden, the former royal garden or the Jardin du Roi. Today’s is about what happened there between the French Revolution and today.
It’s a good story involving the first giraffe in France which became an instant celebrity and fashion icon, as well as some pioneering architecture, and shows how post-Revolution science in all its branches, including botany and horticulture became central to French culture.
This was summed up by Joseph Lakanal, during a debate in the revolutionary National Convention in 1793, who asked if “the Tree of Liberty is the only one not to be naturalised at the Jardin des Plantes” before going on to declare that “of all the monuments raised by the munificence of nations to the glory of natural science, none has deserved the attention of legislators better than the Jardin des Plantes”.
And don’t forget if you’re self-isolating you dont have to wait for Saturday mornings to read something new about garden history. There are another 322 posts covering all sorts of topics for you to read over breakfast [or at any other time!] just check out what’s available under Topics on the top menu bar – or take pot luck and choose a month from the archive column on the right and see what pops up!
The menagerie and natural history cabinet
So I reread them and saw that I’d mentioned Peter Barr a Victorian nurseryman who I’d said was “the unsung daffodil hero” and “who deserves an article of his own” A bit more research led me to a very lively
If I asked you to think of a pagoda in a European garden I suspect your automatic reaction would be to think of the one at Kew. But there is another, perhaps inspired by it, in an imposing position in the Loire Valley near Amboise.
The Garden History Blog 
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