341 
BoTANICAL GARDENS IN THE UNITED STATES. 
The first botanical garden established in America was begun 
by John Bartram in Philadelphia, in 1728. In it he placed a con- 
siderable number of plants obtained in the course of his exten- 
sive travels. The plot still remains, including the family home- 
stead, somewhat modified, and it is a pleasure to know that it 
will be preserved as public ground. 
André Michaux, in the latter part of the last century, planted 
gardens at Charleston, S. C., and New Durham, N. J., but they 
were essentially nurseries from which he sent seeds and plants to 
Europe. 
In the year 1801 Dr. David Hosack, then professor of botany 
and materia medica in Columbia College, purchased twenty acres 
of ground in New York city, and called it the Elgin Botanic 
Garden ; in this tract he accumulated, with great labor during the 
next ten years, a very large and valuable collection of plants. 
The institution was transferred to the State of New York, through 
an act of the Legislature, in 1810, and was then known as the 
Botanic Garden of the State of New York. It was subsequently 
granted to Columbia College. Funds for its maintenance were 
not provided, however, and it was ultimately abandoned. Two 
catalogues of its plants were issued by Dr. Hosack, one in 1806, 
and another in 1811. The condition of botanical gardens in 
America at that time is indicated by the following note in Dr. 
Hosack’s catalogue of 1806: 
“T learn, with pleasure, that a Botanic Garden is proposed to 
be established near Boston, and connected with the University of 
Cambridge. The Legislature of Massachusetts, with a munificence 
which does them honor, have granted, for this purpose, a tract of 
land, the value of which is estimated at thirty thousand dollars ; 
and several individuals have evinced their liberality and love of 
Science by voluntary subscriptions, to the amount of fifteen thou- 
Sand dollars, towards the establishment and support of that insti- 
tution. Another is also begun at Charleston, S. C., and a third is 
contemplated in New Jersey, in connection with the College of 
Princeton.” 
In the year 1824 there was published at Lexington, Ky., the 
“First Catalogues and Circulars of the Botanical Garden of Tran- 
