BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN RECORD 


VOL. XXXIII APRIL, 1944 No. 2 

C. STUART GAGER 
AND THE 
BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN 
Events LEADING TO THE FOUNDING OF THE GARDEN 
“A botanic garden and arboretum for the collection and culture 
of plants, flowers, shrubs and trees, the advancement of botanical 
science and knowledge, and the prosecution of original researches 
therein and in kindred subjects; for affording instruction in the 
same, and for the prosecution and exhibition of ornamental and 
decorative horticulture and gardening, and for the entertainment, 
recreation and instruction of the people...” New York State Law, 
1897 
The proposal for the establishment of a botanic garden in Brook- 
lyn was promoted actively during the last decade of the nineteenth 
century by officials and members of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts 
and Sciences. The first concrete move was the appointment of 
a committee of the Institute on February 26, 1897, to consider the 
advisability of drawing up a New York State Legislative Act re- 
serving the East Side Lands, an area of about thirty-nine acres, 
then known as Institute Park, for a botanic garden and arboretum. 
On March 5, the Board of Trustees approved an act presentec 
by the committee and, soon thereafter, Hon. George W. Brush, 
M.D., a Senator from Brooklyn, introduced a bill in the State 
em ceeire providing for carrying out the provisions of the act, 
this bill being passed on May 18. 
A second step was taken in October, 1898, when Professor 
Franklin W. Hooper was authorized to prepare a form of amend- 
ment to the constitution of the Institute regarding the appointment 
of a standing committee of the Board of Trustees, to be known as 
the Committee on Botanic Garden and Arboretum. The amend- 
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