14 COLUMBIAN INSTITUTE FOR THE 



dyeing drugs, the cochineal insect, the silkworm, the vine, the common 

 sunflower, the white poppy, and plants capable of manufacture, 

 closing with the statement, " Should we be enabled to introduce a 

 single grain, or one grass, which will afford a greater proportion of 

 nutriment than those we now possess, millions may be produced to 

 our country." 



Again, in connection with botany, Dr. Cutbush explained : 



By establishing a botanical garden, we may not only receive instruction our- 

 selves, but excite a spirit of enquiry in the minds of the rising generation ; every 

 parent within the District of Columbia, who is desirous of seeing his children 

 possessed of general information, should contribute toward the establishment 

 and support of the garden, museum, and library. * * * 



To Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton, deceased, late professor of botany and natural 

 history in the University of Pennsylvania, our country is highly indebted for 

 that spirit of enquiry, which has been excited throughout the United States, 

 on this important branch of science, by which many valuable indigenous plants 

 have been added to the materia medica ; and, I trust that the time is not far 

 distant, when we shall be enabled, with certainty, to say, " ubi morbus est, ibi 

 remedium." In short, my friends, there is scarcely an art, science, or manu- 

 facture, which may not be benefited by this association ; and should we be so 

 fortunate as to succeed in establishing a botanical garden, it may excite an 

 emulation among the proprietors of the eminences around our city, by inducing 

 them to cultivate and adorn those beautiful heights with gardens; no city in 

 the United States presents a greater assemblage of sublime views ; nothing is 

 wanting but industry, public spirit, and population, to render them not only 

 pleasing to the eye, but highly advantageous to this district. 



Passing from agriculture, horticulture and architecture to the 

 subject of mineralogy, he remarked: 



Our country, as I have already stated, so far as it respects her minerals, is 

 unexplored. Of the immense riches which her bosom contains, we are absolutely 

 ignorant ; it should, therefore, be one of the primary objects of the Institute, 

 to procure specimens of all the minerals which have been, or may hereafter be, 

 found in the various districts. Independently of the metals, clays, marbles, 

 &c, which may be found useful to the artists and manufacturers, pigments 

 might be manufactured from many of the ores, equal, if not superior, to those 

 which are imported. AVithin forty miles of this city, a mineral [chromate of 

 iron] is found, which furnishes a pigment that has been sold in Europe at a 

 guinea per ounce. In consequence of this defect of knowledge respecting the 

 minerals of our country, persons have been sent from the borders of Seneca 

 Lake, in the state of New York, and, if I mistake not, from Pittsburg, in the 

 state of Pennsylvania, to a spot in the vicinity of Philadelphia, to procure clay, 

 from whence it was transported, by land and water, from three hundred and 

 twenty to six hundred miles, for the use of their respective glass manufactories, 

 when, doubtless, the same quality of clay could have been found in their 

 vicinity, if the country had been explored. 



The mineral, or subterraneous treasures of our country are, next to agricul- 

 ture, interesting subjects of enquiry ; in many places, the riches of the surface 

 are nothing, when compared with those which are concealed in her bosom. 

 What an important discovery would a bed of coal be in the vicinity of our 

 large cities, where fuel is daily becoming a scarce and extravagant article? And 

 how immensely valuable would sulphate of lime and marl be to planters in the 



