98 
an area of about 20 acres, with “green and hothouses” 100 feet 
long by 30 feet wide. The preface to the Catalogue states that 
exchanges, had been effected with other gardens “in different 
parts of the globe,” including direct importations from China. 
Gifts of seeds and plants are acknowledged from Thouin, of the 
Jardin des Plantes, Paris; Nuttall; Hunnewell, of Boston; and 
Dr. David Hosack, and Dr. John Torrey of New York City. 
The development of such a garden was much more difficult 
in those days of less rapid transportation than now, and the 
author states that frequently as many as twenty attempts had 
to be made to import a given species before the efforts met with 
success. In addition to ornamental and fruit trees, and edible 
and decorative flowering plants, the garden contained over 4,000 
species of medicinal plants, including all of those figured and 
described by Bigelow and Barton. 
Seeds were received of all the species collected by Nuttall 
during his western tour of botanical exploration, and seeds of 
eighty-four species from the Yellowstone, collected by Dr. James, 
of Albany, N. Y. The preface also contains a regret that the 
Federal government had so far (1823) failed to establish a 
“botanic institution” in Washington. 
Of course, the Prince garden was fundamentally a nursery, 
and the name Linnaean Botanic Garden was not given until 
about 1793. When the British took possession of Long Island, 
during the Revolutionary War, Gen. Howe placed a guard to pro- 
tect the nursery from harm. The war injured the nursery busi- 
ness, however, and Waller’s “History of the town of Flushing” 
states (p. 137), that Mr. Prince was obliged to sell a large number 
of grafted cherry trees for hoop poles, used in making barrel 
hoops. 
Mr. William Robert Prince was a close friend of orrey 
and Nuttall, and botanized with them both throughout the entire 
line of Atlantic states. So well was he known that at one time 
a letter addressed to William Robert Prince, America, was de- 
livered to him at Flushing with very little delay. 
The proprietors of the garden were always endeavoring to 
secure the latest novelties. They are stated to have been the 
first to introduce Mahonia into American gardens, and 
