PROMOTION OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 53 



wing to some more elevated and handsome structure. Although these build- 

 ings may answer their purpose, the site upon which they are located will re- 

 quire very extensive improvements, in consequence of being so low as to oc- 

 casionally subject it to an overflow from the tide-water of the canal, and some 

 parts never free from standing water. 



To remove this evil, and render the grounds eligible for the purpose to which 

 they have been assigned, would require the surface to be raised and so formed 

 as to insure a good surface drainage at all times : by this, and walling in the 

 Tiber stream from the Pennsylvania avenue culvert to the canal, this lot of 

 ground would present an entirely different aspect, and, I have no doubt, would 

 be well adapted to the more ornamental features which the artistic skill of the 

 gardener may design for it. 



The cost for materials, labor, &c, so far incurred, has unavoidably exceeded 

 the appropriation about twelve or thirteen hundred dollars, which sum will be 

 further increased by the subsequent payment of several claims which will be 

 due to persons who have not yet entirely completed their engagements for the 

 performance of certain portions of the work. 



The location and style of execution of these erections have been conformable to 

 a plan approved by the Joint Committee on the Library. This plan contem- 

 plates a more elevated and ornamental structure, of which the present central 

 building, as before stated, is designed as the eastern wing. 



In his report for 1851 the Commissioner said with reference to the 

 improvement of the grounds west of the Capitol that the work done 

 consisted 



In taking up and resetting two hundred feet of curb and pavement on the 

 south side of Pennsylvania avenue; trimming and gravelling the east front of 

 the botanic garden, and removing and replacing the fence on the south side of 

 the same ; filling earth on the garden square, when it has been offered at a low 

 price ; and filling in a triangular space on the south side of Maryland avenue 

 east of the canal. There yet remains of the appropriation for these objects 

 $229.31, unexpended. 



No appropriation has been made for the last two years for the improvement 

 of the botanic garden square. I have now presented estimates for some addi- 

 tional buildings for the plants, and for filling up, draining and laying out the 

 square in a suitable manner. The sum asked is all that will be necessary for 

 the improvement of this ground until it shall be the pleasure of Congress to 

 enclose it with an iron fence. 



From the same report it appears that a part of reservation No. 17, 

 " lying on the west side of New Jersey avenue has been selected as the 

 site of the public nursery. It has been suitably enclosed and a stream 

 of water conducted to it, by permission of the heirs of the late Daniel 

 Carroll of Duddington, from a spring on their mansion grounds. 

 This square of ground is now ready for the use for which it was en- 

 closed." The site of this public nursery cr propagating garden seems 

 to have been changed in 1857 to a small triangular reservation between 

 Third Street and Four and One-Half Street and Missouri Avenue 

 and the canal, close beside the Botanic Garden. 



In a report to the Commissioner in 1853, W. D. Brackenridge stated, 



The idea you suggested to me some time ago, of asking for an appropriation 

 to fill up the low square on which the public greenhouse is situated, is an 



