122 
In addition to Mr. Hunt's endowment, William C. Langley, 
Esq., gave one third of the land and five thousand dollars in 
money, while Henry A. Kent, Esq., gave the remaining third of 
the garden plot and twenty-five hundred dollars in money. The 
total value of the endowment, in money and land, was thus $87,- 
500, or nearly $10,000 more than the endowment of the Brooklyn 
Botanic Garden after seven years of existence. 
Said the optimistic orator on that occasion: “ Let this sien of 
the Inauguration of the Horticultural Garden, ever be the Anni- 
versary of the successful enterprise, that, year after year, shall 
bless, more and more, the young and the aged, the rich and the 
poor, young men and maidens, old men and children, parents and 
friends, to the latest generation.” 
Alas, for the best-laid plans of mice and men! The institution, 
apparently so firmly established, proved to be, not a perennial, but 
an annual plant. At the close of one year, owing to a combina- 
tion of circumstances, the land (located on Fifth and Sixth 
Avenues, between 57th and Goth Streets) and also the cash endow- 
ments, reverted to the original donors, and the Hunt Botanical 
Garden has, perhaps, never been publicly heard of in Brooklyn 
from that year until the present moment. 
The institution whose main building we dedicate tonight, is the 
third botanic garden projected within the city limits of Brooklyn, 
The second one is designated and laid out in the original plans 
for Prospect Park, but so far as I can learn, its realization was 
never attempted. 
As President Healy has already noted, the first suggestion for 
our institution came from the late Prof. Franklin W. Hooper, but 
the idea of having it administered as a department of the Brooklyn 
Institute of Arts and Sciences, in cooperation with the city of 
New York, was made by Mr. Alfred T. White, chairman of the 
Botanic Garden Governing Committee of the Institute trustees. 
Not the least of my pleasures in giving a brief address this even- 
ing is to make grateful public acknowledgment, not only of the 
generous gifts of Mr. White and his two sisters, but of his untir- 
ing devotion to the interests of the Garden, and his personal in- 
terest in and attention to everything that concerns its welfare, 
and especially its usefulness to this community. 
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