Garden catalogues as sources for studying the collection and transmission of plants: Madeiran plants in the Ajuda botanical garden as a case-study.

This article examines the use of plant lists and related archival documents to study the collection and circulation of plants and botanical knowledge, focusing on the Ajuda botanical garden in Lisbon up to the mid-nineteenth century, with particular attention to plants from the Madeira archipelago. Analysis of three main plant catalogues compiled between the 1770s and 1840s, alongside shipment registers and correspondence, reveals the garden's evolving plant diversity, geographic origins, and the complex exchange networks involved in plant movement, especially regarding Madeiran species. The study highlights the fragmentary nature of surviving records and suggests that many Madeiran plants reached European gardens indirectly through interconnected botanical networks rather than direct shipments to Ajuda. It also underscores the value of historical plant catalogues as rich, though underutilized, sources for understanding botanical history, plant trade, and the diffusion of plant knowledge within and beyond the Portuguese empire.