Jardin des PlantesArticle Free Pass Jardin des Plantes,
officially Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, English
Botanical Garden, or National Museum of Natural History, one of
the world’s foremost botanical gardens, located in Paris. It was
founded in 1626 as a royal garden of medicinal plants and was
first opened to the public in 1650. Under the superintendence of
G.-L.L. Buffon (1739–88) the garden was greatly expanded, and it
developed into a centre of scientific study associated with such
prominent figures of early French botany and zoology as the
Jussieu brothers, Georges Cuvier, and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.
During the early 19th century it supported expeditions to many
distant parts of the world, which led to the acquisition of
large numbers of plants that had been previously unknown to
Western science. Still located at its original site, the Jardin
des Plantes covers 28 hectares (68 acres), on which are situated
6 greenhouses for display and 22 for service functions.
Approximately 23,500 species of plan