The Natal Agricultural and Horticultural Society was founded in 1848 and the first gardens established by Dr Charles Johnston on the south bank of the Umgeni River in 1849. The gardens were relocated from Umgeni River to the present site on the Berea thanks to marauding hippos helping themselves to plants. The Berea Botanic Gardens were laid out in 1851 under the guidance of Mark McKen (1850s/1860s). McKen had been responsible for introducing avocados, pawpaw, and mango into Natal. The gardens, Africa’s oldest surviving Botanical Gardens, cover an area of 15 hectares and water supplied from a 50000-gallon reservoir in the gardens. They were a public facility and to provide a home for newly discovered specimens destined for Kew Gardens in London. In 1881 the running of the gardens was transferred from the founding society to the Durban Botanic Society. The Durban Botanic Garden’s Medley Wood House was the original residence built in 1889 for the Curator of the Gardens, John Medley Wood (1882-1913), who had been appointed curator in 1882. The house has been restored and in 1986 the Department of Agriculture and Water Supply received a Conservation Award from the Durban City Council. This Victorian building with its green roof, red brick, wrap-around verandahs, decorative trellis work above the verandah posts and encaustic tiles on the veranda floors, gives the house its distinctive look. The house was funded by the public and fund raising by selling plants at a bazaar at the City Hall. A total of 1147 Pounds was raised, and the house completed in July 1890. The Natal Government Herbarium was established in 1882 and designed by the Public Works Department. It replaced a wood and iron building. The present Herbarium built in 1902 has an inset veranda, between two end-gables, with classical pediments. The interior has ornate pressed metal ceilings with offices each end. Since 1913 it has be used as offices, specimen storage, for botanical research and now also for training by the Department of Agriculture’s, South African National Biodiversity Institute or SANBI. About an acre of land was excised from the Botanic Gardens and the Herbarium and Medley House was transferred to the Union Department of Agriculture.
