56 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



As near as I can learn, the first successful attempt in this country at a 

 Botanic Garden was made near Philadelphia, in 1730, by John Bartram. One 

 of the best in the United States was started in 1800 hy Joshua and Samuel 

 Peirce at Westchester, Penn. Probably the Arboretum containing the greatest 

 number of species of any in this country, has been quite recently started on 

 the College Campus of the Ohio Wesleyan University. It now contains 600 

 epecies, though most of them are still too small to make much of a display. 



I do not know that Michigan has any yet worthy of the name. A small 

 beginning has been made at the Agricultural College. If the prosperity of the 

 State continues, and her school system holds its rank, I have no doubt that 

 Bhe will have a number of Botanic Gardens started within the next twenty or 

 thirty years. 



I will briefly enumerate some of the 



USES OF AN ARBORETUM. 



Nearly all of our prominent cities are spending large amounts on parks for 

 the health and pleasure of their people. Chief among the attractions of a park 

 are trees and shrubs. The study of these and the interest they awaken would 

 he much increased by giving a greater variety of plants to the parks. Some of 

 them are now monotonous on account of too many plants of one kind. Private 

 grounds and cemeteries could be made much more attractive by planting a 

 greater variety of trees and shrubs, appropriate to each particular spot. 



The Prairie States are already extensively engaged in planting for timber 

 and shelter, but no man knows for certain whether he has the best trees for 

 his purpose. It may seem too soon to talk of raising forest trees in Michigan, 

 60 celebrated for her extensive forests; but at the present accelerated rate of 

 cutting off timber, the next generation must begin to look out for a supply of 

 some kinds either by importation or raising. I heartily indorse what Mr. T. 

 T. Lyon says of the importance of timber belts. 



It will take some years for Arboreta to get established so as to be very 

 instructive, hence the great need of starting them soon. The expense is very 

 trifling when we think of the advantages which would arise from it. "Its 

 utility is as obvious and important as any other museum of natural history, — 

 certainly not inferior to any in the intrinsic value of its connection with arts 

 and manufactures, and presenting a school of instruction that will largely 

 tend to advance our progress in the knowledge of vegetable physiology, and 

 furnish a strong incentive to botanical studies. Unlike many other museum 

 collections, this will constantly vary in its beauty and attractions; the yearly 

 development of individual forms, with its combinations of form, foliage, 

 flowers, and fruit the opening buds in spring, and the gorgeous hues of the 

 autumn foliage, represent extreme periods between which each day has its own 

 peculiar beauties. To the artist, such a collection presents a field where may 

 be studied the form of every leaf and outline of the superior vegetation of the 

 temperate zones; and the botanist will here find the material living presence 

 of those objects which, in thAv more refined relations, enter into his abstract 

 and recondite arrangements."* 



Such a garden will be the delight of the nurserymen, as here they can then 

 see what would be hardy, and most suitable to ornament the grounds of their 

 customers. As a part of this Arboretum should be an experimental garden of 

 orchard fruits, where should be found all the fruit trees hardy in our climate, 



•Report of U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1867. 



