Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Botanic Gardens

[3] Accounts compiled later by Young's successor Dr Alexander Anderson are more detailed, affirming that the garden was created to facilitate the '[introduction of such] plants as might be of advantage' to the British West Indies and the 'nation at large'; namely in the provision of new 'foods, medicines or batches of commerce' that could not be cultivated in Britain's North American colonies.

[5] In following the broader colonial programme of 'plant interchange', the Saint Vincent Botanic Garden was designed to cultivate new West Indian export markets by way of introducing foreign plant species from the East.

Instead, documents indicate it was privately financed by Melville during his tenure in the Windward Isles, and Anderson's 'Account' shows he directed the commanding officer at the Kingstown Garrison to requisition a plot of barrack land for the garden.

He then established a correspondence with governors on the Spanish Main 'to bring more valuable plants of that country' to Saint Vincent, and left Dr. Young '[with his] library relating to botanical history', 'other handbooks of science', and 'all his mathematical instruments'.

[8] Given the paucity of government funding and logistical support provided for the garden, many of these plant species were sent by French botanists working from Saint Domingue, Martinique, Guadeloupe and Cayenne.

Melville, anticipating modern ethnobotany, urged that "physical practitioners of the country, natives of experience, and even old Caribs and slaves who have dealt in cures might be worth taking notice of, and if at any time you should think that a secret may be got at or even an improvement for small expense, I shall readily pay for it."

[9] Under George Young (1765–1785), and the capable and enthusiastic guidance of the second superintendent curator, Alexander Anderson, who served from 1785 to 1811, the Botanical Gardens quickly attained an enviable reputation and received wide acclaim.

[2] The Nicholas Wildlife Aviary Complex, located within the gardens, maintains a captive breeding program to conserve the vulnerable Saint Vincent amazon, the national bird.