P^ DKNELOPAIENT OF BOTANY IN NEW YORK CITY. I 89 



lion and of Columbia's relation to it by Professor Underwood, can 

 be found in the Columbia Quarterly 4 (1903) : 278. Our charter 

 was secured in 1891 and was amended in 1894. It was agreed 

 upon that 250 acres of park lands should be set apart for 

 our use and $500,000 appropriated for the museum building and 

 conservatories, as soon as an endowment fund of $250,000 was 

 obtained. This fund was completed in 1895. Columbia making 

 the first subscription of $25,000. With the election of Dr. X. L. 

 Britton as director-in-chief, and his selection of a working staff, 

 the preparations were completed and work begun in 1896, the 

 event which we are to-day celebrating. This was the year in 

 which was published the first part of Britton and Brown's '* Il- 

 lustrated Flora." Ground was broken for the museum building in 

 December, 1897, and for the conservatories in 1898. The mu- 

 seum was opened in 1899. In 1898 the bulk of the herbarium of 

 Columbia College, numbering nearly half a million specimens, 

 and of its botanical library, including more than 5,000 bound vol- 

 umes, were turned over to the garden, in trust ^nd for its use, 

 under certain stipulated conditions. Since then the herbarium 

 has been more than doubled, and the library has been enlarged to 

 18,000 volumes. A vast amount of grading has been done, many 

 miles of walks and roadways built, bridges erected, and a great 

 increase in all the collections has been made. Besides the Bulle- 

 tin and the Journal, regularly published, the garden has entered 

 upon work of a much more ambitious character. Utilizing thet 

 David Lydig fund bequeathed by Mrs. Daly, it has begun the- 

 publication of an elaborate Flora of Xortli America, the first. 

 parts of which have already been published. Provision has beeuz 

 made also for the publication of colored plates of American 

 plants. 



Among the very important undertakings maintained have been 

 extensive explorations not only in the United States proper, but 

 in such distant regions as the West Indies and the Philippines. 

 A tropical station is maintained in Jamaica for the convenience 

 of visiting botanists. -At the garden a scholarship fund is main- 

 tained by which it is rendered possible for investigators desiring 

 to pursue studies here to be supported for a limited period. 



