Bogor Botanical Gardens was originally a part of the 'samida' (artificial artificial forest or park) that most do not have existed in the reign of Maharaja Sri Baduga (Prabu Siliwangi, 1474-1513) of the Kingdom of Sunda, as stated in the inscription Batutulis.Artificial forest was intended for the purposes of protecting the environment as a place to nurture the seeds of rare wood. In addition samida it also made a similar samida on the border with Bogor Cianjur (Forest Ciung Vanara). Forest is then left after the defeat of the Sunda kingdom of Banten Sultanate, until the Governor-General van der Capellen built cottage in one corner in the middle of the 18th century.
At the time of the leadership figures that have been carried out activities of production of a catalog of Bogor Botanical Gardens, a complete listing of collection Cryptogamae plants, 25 species of gymnosperms, 51 species and 2200 species Monocotyledonae Dicotyledonae, business introduction important economic crop in Indonesia, collecting plants useful for Indonesia (43 types, including vanilla, coconut oil, quinine, gutta percha, sugarcane, cassava, maize from America, ironwood from Palembang and Kalimantan), and develop internal institutional Botanical Gardens.
Bogor Botanical Gardens is always experienced significant development under the leadership of Dr. Carl Ludwig Blume (1822), JE. Teijsmann and Dr. Hasskarl (era of the Governor-General Van den Bosch), J. E. Teijsmann and Simon Binnendijk, Dr. R.H.C.C. Scheffer (1867), Professor. Dr. Treub Melchior (1881), Dr. Jacob Christiaan Koningsberger (1904), Van den Hornett (1904), and Prof.. Ir. Koestono Setijowirjo (1949), which is the first Indonesian who served a leading international research institutes.
On May 30, 1868 Bogor Botanical Gardens officially separate the management is with the Bogor Palace pages. At first, this garden will only be used as an experimental garden for plantation crops that will be introduced to the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). But in its development is also used as a forum for research scientists of that era (1880-1905). The establishment of the Bogor Botanical Gardens can be said to initiate the development of science in Indonesia.
From this was born a few other scientific institutions, such as the Bibliotheca Bogoriensis (1842), Herbarium Bogoriense (1844), Cibodas Botanical Garden (1860), Laboratory Treub (1884), and the Museum and Laboratory of Zoology (1894). In 1822 Reinwardt returned to Holland and was replaced by Dr. Carl Ludwig Blume conduct an inventory of the collection of plants that grow in the garden. He also compiled the first catalog of the garden were recorded as many as 912 species (species) of plants.
Implementation of development of this garden has been postponed due to lack of funds but then again pioneered by Johannes Elias Teysmann (1831), an expert in the palace gardens Governor-General Johannes van den Bosch. With the assistance of Karl Justus Hasskarl, he made arrangements and growing collections by grouping according to the tribes (families). Teysmann later replaced by Dr.. Rudolph Herman Christiaan Carel Scheffer in 1867 became director, and continued later by prof. Dr. Melchior Treub. Approximately 47 hectares of land around the presidential palace in Bogor and the former first samida clear land for botanical gardens. Reinwardt became its first director from 1817 until 1822.
This opportunity is used to collect plants and seeds from other parts of the archipelago. Bogor immediately became the center of agriculture and horticulture development in Indonesia. At that time an estimated 900 live plants grown in the orchard. In May 18, 1817, Governor General Godert Alexander Gerard Philip van der Capellen was officially founded with the name of the Bogor Botanical Gardens Buitenzorg s'Lands Plantentuinte. Stance swing begins by putting the first spade in the earth as a sign Pajajaran construction of the vineyard development, whose implementation led by Reinwardt himself, assisted by James Hooper and W. Kent (of the famous Kew Gardens in Richmond, England).
Prof. Caspar Georg Karl Reinwardt is one German who moved to Holland and became a scientist in botany and chemistry. He was promoted to minister of agriculture, arts, and science in Java and beyond. He is interested in investigating the various plants used for treatment. He decided to collect all of these plants in a botanical garden in the city of Bogor, which was then called Buitenzorg (from the Dutch language, which means "do not have to worry"). Reinwardt also a pioneer in the field of making herbarium. He became known as a founder of the Herbarium Bogoriense.
In 1814 Olivia Raffles (wife of Governor-General Thomas Stamford Raffles) died due to illness and was buried in Batavia. For the preservation, monument to him was established in the Bogor Botanical Gardens. The idea stems from the founding of the Botanical Gardens of Abner, a biologist who wrote a letter to the Governor-General GAGPh. van der Capellen. In the letter revealed his desire to ask for a parcel of land that will be used as a garden of useful plants, where teacher education, and collection of plants for the development of the other gardens.
In the early 1800s Governor-General Thomas Stamford Raffles, who inhabit the Bogor Palace and have a great interest in botany, interested in developing pages Bogor Palace into a beautiful garden. With the help of botanists, W. Kent, who helped build Kew Garden in London, Raffles juggle the courtyard became a classic English-style garden. This is the beginning of the Bogor Botanical Garden in its present form.
