A FORGOTTEN BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



BY DR. W W. BAILEY. 



^X'HE garden laid out by Dr. Droune at Mount Hygeia, 

 ■^ North Foster, R. I., had, in its day, a wide fame and con- 

 tinued for many years after his death to be a place of singular 

 interest to professional botanists. It is a remarkable fact that 

 over a century ago, this scholarly man, a graduate of Brown 

 University in 1773 and a M. D. of the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania should have established a botanic garden in this remote 

 spot. 



The founder's extensive circle of friends, here and abroad 

 permitted him to amass many rare plants. These he arranged 

 according to the accepted system of the time — no doubt the 

 Linnaean — but with an ever present idea of hannony. It will 

 be seen at once by everyone familiar with scientific arrange- 

 ment that this must often conflict with art or taste. Within 

 the limits of any one family there may co-exist aqueous and 

 terrestrial plants, alpine specie^ and others confined to valleys. 

 In a botanic garden, then, the designer aims only at the pos- 

 sible. Desert plants will not co-exist with those of alluvial for- 

 mations. Where water is absent in stream, pond or river cer- 

 tain genera and species must be omitted. A botanic garden, 

 then becomes a compromise between accepted facts of nature 

 on one hand and possibilities of accomplishment on the other. 

 The garden soon becomes known to the learned of the 

 time and we can fancy the. good doctor wandering through its 

 paths — I had almost said aisles — with his friends. While we 

 have no authority for the statement, and do not know who 

 were his scientific friends, we love to think that among his 

 visitors may have been Michaux, Nuttall, Barton and Rafines- 

 que. We are sure he was the peer of any. He loved literature 

 and was even devoted to poetry. Here where silence has her 

 apotheosis, I can fancy his delight in penning the many per- 

 fumed thoughts with which his writings abound. 



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