Founded in 1817 by the order of the government of the Dutch East Indies, the Garden thrived under the leadership of many renowned botanists including Johannes Elias Teijsmann, Rudolph Herman Christiaan Carel Scheffer, and Melchior Treub. Since its foundation, Bogor Botanical garden has served as a major research center for agriculture and horticulture. It is the oldest botanical garden in Southeast Asia The Garden is roughly square shaped covering an area of 87 hectares (210 acres), with additional 28.4 hectares (70 acres) of the ground in the north-west being the palace garden. The Garden is divided by the Ciliwung river and has three bridges. The main gate is located in the south and is where most of the garden facilities are concentrated, such as ticket purchasing booth, Treub's laboratory, Nusa Indah Guesthouse, plant/souvenir shops, the library and the conservation building. The precinct east of Ciliwung was laid out in 1927 with facilities as the mosque, cafes, Herbarium, orchid section and Wisma Tamu guesthouse, near Astrid's avenue. Today the garden contains 13,983 specimens of trees and plants, belonging to 3373 species, 1257 genera and 218 families.[18] There are 288 species (88 genera) of exceptional palms along lawns and avenues.The Gardens are a refuge for more than 50 different varieties of birds and for groups of bats roosting high in the trees.