PROMOTION OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 41 



central, the square enclosed between Seventh and Ninth and F and G 

 Streets, northwest, containing 4£ acres, subsequently used for the 

 building of the Patent Office. It was here that the greenhouses for 

 the living plants brought home by the United States Exploring Ex- 

 pedition in 1842 were first located, but for some reason not recorded 

 in the minutes, the attention of the Institute was almost immediately 

 turned from the Patent Office site to the extreme eastern end of the 

 Mall, and on May 29, 1820, the agreement of the President of the 

 United States to this selection was reported to the society. On the 

 plat of the measured ground, signed by J. Elgar, Surveyor of Wash- 

 ington City, it is said to have been laid out August 12, 1820, but 

 this information appears not to have been officially communicated to 

 the Institute until October 11, when Mr. Elgar states in a letter that 

 he is ready to show the metes and bounds. It was, moreover, not until 

 April 10, 1821, that a certificate confirming the location was signed 

 by the President; and as late as September 1, 1821, a resolution was 

 passed by the Institute calling upon the Commissioner of Public 

 Buildings to put the Institute in full and complete possession of the 

 ground. Certain steps looking to the improvement of the site seem, 

 however, to have been taken during the latter part of 1820, though 

 apparently it was not until the summer of 1821 that activities in this 

 direction were actually begun. 



In the certificate by the President, which conforms with the plat, 

 the grounds, being part of public reservation No. 2, were described as 

 follows: "Beginning at a point in the south line of Pennsylvania 

 Avenue, where said line intersects the circular road west of the 

 Capitol, and running thence westwardly bounding on said line, 627 

 feet 8 inches ; then clue south, 578 feet 10J inches, to the north line of 

 Maryland Avenue; then bordering on said line eastwardly, 627 feet 

 8 inches, to the circular road aforesaid ; then bounding on said road, to 

 the first beginning, containing 5 acres of ground." 



The Capitol grounds at that time were much less extensive than at 

 present, and were bordered near the base of the steep slope on the 

 west of the Capitol by the circular road above mentioned, to which 

 both Pennsylvania and Maryland Avenues extended. The place of 

 these avenues in the grounds, though reduced in width, is now taken 

 by the two broad walks leading to the western entrance of the build- 

 ing. Moreover, First Street had not then been carried through at 

 this place, and the grant to the Columbian Institute extended con- 

 tinuously from the circular road to a point between First and Second 

 Streets, in the shape of a truncated triangle of which the north and 

 south sides were equal. 



This tract the Institute began to improve and cultivate, but in 1822 

 the question of its enlargement was agitated and was embodied in 



