Gardens with Wings The Royal Botanic Gardens

By John Gonsalves

sense of order upon the cityscape. He removed the tropical rainforest in the immediate vicinity of his new government house at St Ann’s, and had a Botanical Garden planted with imported trees. This was a demonstration of the reach and power of colonial control.

Touring the grounds, you may be surprised to find a small portion of land set aside for the burial of leading Government officials and their families. The earliest recorded grave is that of William Souper in 1819. 2010 marks the last recorded burial at the cemetery of Lady Thelma Hochoy, the wife of the first Governor General of Trinidad and Tobago, Sir Solomon Hochoy, who was also laid to rest there in 1983.

Governor Sir George Fitzgerald Hill, renowned for reading the Emancipation Proclamation on August 1, 1834, at the front of what is now the Treasury Building, was also buried there in 1839, alongside his wife, Lady Jane Beresford Hill (1836). The lush Royal Botanic Gardens were developed to foster Conservation, Education, Research and Recreation. A popular site for walks, picnics and quiet recreation, the gardens are also an excellent location for bird watching, with parrots, parakites, pairs of blue and yellow macaws and woodpeckers among the numerous species regularly seen. A recent project was the establishment of a butterfly garden - Garden with Wings. This garden is designed to educate the public about how they can help feed our native caterpillars, which metamorphosize into the various butterflies and moths. Surprisingly, what many think of as weeds are in fact beautiful indigenous plants which provide nourishment to the butterflies and moths. One of the oldest botanical gardens in the West Indies, the Gardens are open to the public every day from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.