Histoire du jardin botanique de Bruxelles (1830-1837): des premiers soucis au désespoir, de l'idéalisme au pragmatisme de survie…

Abstract

SUMMARY: In his second contribution about the "Société Royale d'Horticulture des Pays-Bas", the author deals with what would have been the turning point in its story; the period following the Belgian revolution (1830-1837). Protected by the King of Holland since it was born (1826), the Society - a joint-stock company running the botanical garden of Brussels - suffered from important destructions during the Belgian fight for independence. Unable to pay the bills, as a consequence, regarded as an "orangist" creation, and a merely commercial association, the new administrations of the country, at almost every level, tried to cancel the public help the botanical garden had obtained from William of Orange and the city of Brussels. Threatened in its survival, the Society had to prove its public utility (agronomic experimentations were the way) to deserve it. It was the time to get into the Belgian silk production "utopia"... In such a situation, the board tried to develop the commercial activities of the garden as well, causing what sounds like a minor expression of class struggle in Brussels (1835). Despite all the efforts, an attempt to turn to more professionalism, the melting of new regulations, and the intervention of King Leopold the First, at the end of those years, the newly baptized " Société Royale d'Horticulture de Belgique" was agonizing, probably victim of its hybrid origins. The future was darkening ...