112 
and convenient buildings, our Botanic Garden, which has already 
displayed the vigor and strength of youth, will be able vastly to 
enlarge its usefulness and in some adequate measure to impart 
to our people, young and old, the knowledge of trees and plants, 
fruits and flowers, in their myriad forms of beauty, which is no- 
where else in this great borough to be obtained. Here the in- 
finite book of nature will be opened to our citizens so that they 
can learn something of the fascinating and wonderful contents 
which it has to reveal. 
The land upon which this Botanic Garden is located was set 
apart for the purpose, by enactment of the legislature, nearly 
twenty years ago, but it was not until 1910 that the Garden was 
actually established. It is but just to say, and it ought to be said 
upon this occasion, that more than to any one else and more than 
to all others combined we owe the Botanic Garden to Alfred T. 
White, who is and who has been from the beginning the chair- 
man of the Committee on Botanic Garc 
=o 
en. He has realized and 
felt more deeply than any of us the great advantage to the com- 
munity of such an institution as this. It is to his initiative, to his 
wise and intelligent direction of its affairs, to his frequent large 
donations of money—at present sharing equally with the city the 
cost of the buildings now under construction—that we owe our 
Botanic Garden as we have it to-day in successful operation with 
its possibilities of far greater development lying immediately be- 
fore us. How Mr. White has been able to do all this, while at 
the same time giving continuously of himself and his means with 
great liberality to many other institutions and causes of charity 
philanthropy, it is difficult to understand. But the Botanic 
Garden is an accomplished fact—thanks to him—and here it will 
remain, a blessing to us anc 
fata 
to generations yet unborn. 
One thing more. The success which the Botanic Garden has 
already attained has been due in very large measure to the abil- 
ity, the zeal, and the high order of the service of Dr. C. Stuart 
Gager, its efficient director, and his excellent assistants. The 
organization and direction of the scientific work of the Garden 
has from its inception been in the hands of Dr. Gager, and it is 
fortunate for the public that work of this character is able to in- 
spire in men of science like him a noble enthusiasm and an in- 
