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minded of similar exercises, held in a large tent, which attended 
the laying of the corner stone of the adjacent Museum Building 
of the Institute in December, 1895, and which were participated 
in as speakers by the Mayor of the City, Charles A. Schieren, 
Rev..Dr. Storrs, Franklin W. Hooper, Director of the Institute, 
Rev. Charles R. Baker, Rev. John W. Chadwick, as poet, Seth 
Low, then President of Columbia University, St. Clair MckKelway 
and Rev, Sylvester Malone, all leading citizens and very promi- 
nent in the life of the city at that time. I had then but recently 
been elected President of the Institute and as such acted as the 
presiding officer at the meeting. It is remarkable, as showing 
what a moving caravan we are, that of the nine persons [ have 
mentioned as having taken part in the exercises, eight have already 
passed to the pale realms of shade, and I alone remain. Two 
years later dedicatory exercises of the first section of the Museum 
Building were held at which the Mayor of the City was present, 
the principal address being given by President Eliot of Harvard. 
On that occasion a flag was presented to the Museum by Uyss, 
Grant Post, of the Grand Army of the Republic. So you see, 
ladies and gentlemen, the Botanic Garden is following the estab- 
lished traditions and practice of the Institute in this formal dedi- 
cation of its buildings with appropriate exercises, 
At the dedicatory exercises to which I have just referred, praise 
was given by the different speakers to the officials of the old 
city of Brooklyn for the enlightened policy which had enabled 
them to see that the material interests of the city, no less than 
its moral and intellectual welfare, would be promoted by provid- 
ing the means necessary for the erection. and maintenance of 
buildings which in so eminent a degree should minister to the 
enjoyment and the instruction of its citizens, and they said that 
they did not permit themselves to doubt that the incoming admin- 
istration of the government of the so-called Greater New York 
would have the same breadth of view in the exercise of its dis- 
cretionary power. These hopes and expectations have been fully 
realized in these intervening years. It is true that the present 
most excellent administration of the city government has been 
exceedingly conservative and exceedingly deliberate in the egrant- 
ing of money for such purposes. But on the whole we have 
