Cambridge Reopens 336-Year-Old John Ray Garden

JAKARTA - Trinity College, Cambridge, has revived a 336-year-old garden once created by John Ray, a 17th-century botanist known as the "father of natural history".

The Guardian, quoted Saturday, June 20, reported that the park was rebuilt to commemorate Ray's 400th birthday next year. Trinity gardeners dismantled the front lawn of the campus and replanted the garden in a location believed to have been used by Ray in the 1650s.

Ray coined the terms petal or flower crown and pollen or pollen. He also laid the foundation for modern biology.

While a young tutor in Cambridge, Ray began to study plants systematically. From a small garden he collected, planted, and then recorded various plants around Cambridge.

The main clue for this project comes from an engraving from 1690. Its location is in front of a descendant of an apple tree that is often associated with Isaac Newton, another great scientist who was also a graduate of Trinity College.

Ray noted many plants in his book, Catalogue of Plants Growing Around Cambridge, which was published in Latin in 1660. The work is important because it is one of the first serious documentation of the flora of an area in England.

"We found a note when Ray wrote, 'I planted this in our little garden in Cambridge'. I had to look up the Latin phrase to find out what plant he had planted," said Head Gardener at Trinity College, Karen Wells.

According to Wells, Ray used to travel around the Cambridge area to collect plants. The plants were then brought home to the garden to be studied.

Ray is estimated to have tried to plant around 700 types of plants. The contents are not only beautiful flowers. There are lichen crusts and fungi from the swamp area, as well as poisonous plants such as American pokeweed and Dutchman's pipe.

For this new garden, Wells did not plant all of the endangered collections. He chose drought-resistant and pollinator-friendly plants such as bees and butterflies. The choice is considered more suitable for strengthening biodiversity and facing a warmer climate.

The list of plants includes wood avens, a small yellow-flowering woodland plant, betony from the mint family, golden rod that grows in meadows, purple-flowering pasqueflower, and white-flowering moth mullein.

"As soon as I planted the mullein, a bee immediately came looking for nectar," Wells said.

He also planted Good King Henry, a medieval herbal. This plant was chosen in honor of King Henry VIII, the founder of Trinity College in 1546. Ray once wrote that the plant's stem was delicious when cooked with butter.

When the park was almost finished and ready to open on Thursday, Wells admitted that it was like seeing the past come back.

"When making this park, it feels like traveling in time," he said.

According to The Guardian, the location of the park also contains other scientific traces. In 2005, Prof. Peter Spargo from the University of Cape Town examined the soil in the area to find the location of Newton's chemical experiments.

The results were surprising. The soil contained copper, arsenic, gold, mercury, and other metal residues in higher levels than estimated. Bricks and mortar fragments were also found. The findings led to the suspicion that the location was Newton's personal laboratory.

Because it was associated with Ray and Newton, Trinity College historian Prof Richard Serjeantson said the garden was probably on one of the most important pieces of land for 17th-century science.

Ray himself did not come from a noble family. He is the son of a blacksmith. He came to Cambridge on a scholarship at the age of 16 to study rhetoric, logic, and grammar.

In the introduction to his book on the flora of Cambridgeshire, Ray wrote that his interest in nature arose when he was unwell. He then chose to go for walks or horseback riding to rest from his heavy studies.

According to Serjeantson, Ray's love for local plants is still relevant. In a time when various plants and goods can be brought in from many places, the garden is considered interesting because it reflects the local flora of Cambridge, as well as awareness of carbon footprints and the risk of invasive species.