THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 
BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN 
RECORD 
VoL. XI October, 1922 No. 4 


THE FIRST “BOTANIC” GARDEN IN BROOKLYN 
The Recorp for October, 1912, contained an account of “ The 
first botanic garden on Long Island, namely, the Linnaean Botanic 
Garden of William Prince, at Flushing.” In the Recorp for 
October, 1918, there was given “A brief history of the botanic 
garden idea in Brooklyn,” being an account of the abortive attempt, 
in 1855, to establish “The Hunt Horticultural and Botanical Gar- 
den” (otherwise known as the Brooklyn Hunt Botanical Garden), 
and the plan of Egbert L. Viele, proposed to the Commissioners 
of Prospect Park in their First Annual Report (1861), for a 
botanic garden in Prospect Park. 
There has since come to the attention of the writer two notices 
of another and still earlier “botanic” garden in Brooklyn, estab- 
lished in 1825 by. Andre Parmentier. This garden is referred to 
in Stile’s History of the Csty of Brooklyn (Vol. II, pp. 173-174, 
Brooklyn, 1869), from which the following quotation is taken: 
“Andre Parmentier, born at Engheim, department of Jemmapes, 
province of Hainault, in Belgium, July 3d, 1780, was of a highly 
respectable family, and enjoyed the advantages of a liberal educa- 
tion. His relative, Anthony Parmentier, was the individual that 
introduced the potato in France. Pecuniary losses induced Mr. 
Parmentier, who was a merchant, to come to this country, in 1824. 
Stopping a while in New York City, he was finally induced by his 
passion for botanical pursuits, to devote himself to gardening on 
a scale heretofore almost unknown in this section. Refusing the 
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