The Botanic Garden, Wellington is a major landmark of the Capital City, and a focal point of the suburbs of Thorndon, Kelburn and Northland.

Forged from a landscape that topographically presented unprecedented problems it has become a unique New Zealand feature and one of our best known gardens.

The history of the garden, however, is not so well known and the authors have put this on record for the first time. A definitive work, it is in simple terms the story of a people and a garden.

The early colonist's nostalgia for familiar plants difficult to transport alive from their homeland, and settlers waiting nearly thirty years for development of land reserved for a Botanic Garden by the New Zealand Company in the 1840s, set the stage for the unfolding story. From 1869 under early New Zealand Royal Society administration, Governors, Provincial Superintendents, Colonial Secretaries, Premiers, politicians, scientists and laymen were all involved. The 1870 Vogel expansionistic policies and their contraction in the 1880s are reflected in the story. Early forestry and the significance of the present bush are discussed.

Those who take pleasure in park settings, in flowers, trees, rare plants, garden design, the wonderful open spaces and the treescapes against a clear Wellington blue sky will treasure this book. More importantly you'll treasure the Wellington Botanic Gardern.

- from the inside cover.

Published by Millwood Press Ltd. 1988
Very good secondhand condition, with slight fading on the spine of the dust-jacket.