387 
is set apart as a public park to be preserved and protected by the 
State because of its paleobotanical interest. A notice of this gift, 
and a brief geological and paleobotanical description of the area 
was given by Dr. John M. Clarke, Director of the New York 
State Museum, in Science 40: 884. 18 D 1914, under the title, 
“A fossil botanical garden.” On January 1, 1927, Lester Park 
was transferred from the State Museum to the Department of 
Conservation, in connection with the reorganization of the New 
York State government. (See also Gilboa, p. 385; Saratoga 
Springs, p. 390.) 
NEW YORK CITY (1) 
Excin Botanic GARDEN (DISCONTINUED) 
Established: 1801, by Dr. David Hosack. Area: 20 acres. 
This Garden was established “as a repository of native plants, 
and as subservient to medicine, agriculture, and the arts.” The 
land was purchased by Hosack from “ the Corporation of the City 
of New York,” for $4,807.36, and in the first edition of his 
“Catalog of Plants Contained in the Botanic Garden at Elgin” 
(New York, 1806), he reports that the greater part of the area 
was then in cultivation. He states further that “ A primary ob- 
ject of attention in this establishment will be to collect and culti- 
vate the native plants of this country, especially such as possess 
medicinal properties, or are otherwise useful.” Also to introduce 
similar kinds of plants from different parts of the world to as- 
certain which ones might be successfully naturalized. The plan- 
tations were in part systematic illustrating the “natural orders ” 
according to both Linnaeus and Jussieu. 
On January 3, 1811 Hosack conveyed the Botanic Garden with 
its conservatory and all other appurtenances to the State of New 
York for the sum of $74,268.75. The plants and tools were, in 
1810, appraised by a Committee that included the botanist Pursh, 
as worth $12,635.74% cents. The Regents of the State placed the 
Garden in the control of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. 
When this college became part of Columbia University (1814) the 
University took over the ownership and management. Subse- 
quently 16 city lots at 48th St. and Fifth Ave. were sold to the 
Collegiate Dutch Reformed Church for $80,000 and about 1900 
