Founded in 1760, the Cambridge Botanic Garden was designed to serve the theological interests of the university by developing a collection of living plants from across the globe. Exploring the construction and layout of the garden, its global network, methods of managing information, and the accessibility of the collection during the professorship of Thomas Martyn between 1762 and 1825, this article casts new light on the motivations for founding and managing a botanic garden in Cambridge. It shows how communication structures adapted as the British Empire contracted in the Americas and expanded into Asia and the Pacific, classifying species in the physical garden later inventoried in a series of published catalogues. It suggests that growing interests in natural theology intertwined the university with the expanding British Empire, developing a collection designed to educate students in the influence of divine providence on the vegetable kingdom.

剑桥植物园成立于 1760 年，旨在通过开发来自世界各地的活植物来服务于大学的神学利益。本文探讨了 1762 年至 1825 年间托马斯·马丁 (Thomas Martyn) 担任教授期间植物园的建设和布局、其全球网络、管理信息的方法以及馆藏的可访问性，为建立和管理植物园的动机提供了新的线索在剑桥。它展示了随着大英帝国在美洲收缩并扩展到亚洲和太平洋地区，交流结构如何适应，对物理花园中的物种进行分类，后来编入一系列出版的目录中。它表明，对自然神学日益增长的兴趣使大学与不断扩张的大英帝国交织在一起，开发了一系列旨在教育学生神圣天意对植物王国影响的馆藏。