170 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



consumed. In a large patch, nothing was left but the balls of 

 greenish florets. Sarsaparilla has the habit of concealing its 

 flowers the same as mandrake. Looking down upon a colony 

 of plants one sees only a dense mass of leaves. Each leaf has 

 three compound divisions on a long petiole. About half as 

 tall, and close beside it, stands the flowering stalk with three 

 or four peduncled umbels at its summit. — Nell McMurray, 

 Clearfield, Penna. 



OivDDST American Botanical Gardens. — When the 

 subject of the oldest botanical gardens comes up, one's mind is 

 likely to turn to Bartram's garden in Philadelphia, Prince's 

 garden on Long Island, or the Elgin garden in New York. 

 These were all established in the early days of our country, 

 but ha\e long been abandoned as botanical gardens, though 

 Bartram's garden still exists. The botanical gardens that at 

 present are entitled to the name are of comparatively recent 

 origin. The Missouri Botanical Garden is probably one of 

 the oldest, but the oldest botanical garden of America is 

 neither in the United States nor in Canada. For real age, one 

 must turn to the West Indies. The garden at St. Vincent is 

 more than 150 years old and still going strong while Trinidad 

 has recently celebrated the hundreth anniversary of the found- 

 ing of its garden. Bath garden in Jamaica, though now fall- 

 en almost into disuse, was founded nearly 150 years ago and 

 is a close second to the garden at St. Vincent in seniority. 

 East's garden also in Jamaica, was a few years older than the 

 garden at Bath, but it has long since been abandoned. The Ja- 

 maican gardens still in existence arc much younger. Castleton 

 garden has been in operation about sixty years and Cinchona 

 for nearlv as long. The best known garden, Hope, near the 

 city of Kingston, dates from 1873. If there are any gardens in 

 the New World that have a span of life approaching the old- 

 est of these, w^e would be glad to hear of them. 



