

3 
Acceptance of the Tree by the Director of the Garden 
Mr. Curator of Plants: I have examined the tree which you 
present for this planting, and find it to be a well formed, vigorous 
tree. 
Introduction of Professor de Vries by the Director of the 
Members of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, 
Friends of the Garden, Ladies and Gentlemen: It is a cause of 
extreme gratification that the Garden is to enjoy the honor of 
having its first commemorative tree planted by so distinguished 
a botanist as Professor Hugo de Vries. Every student of plants, 
in every country of the civilized world, knows him by name, and 
appreciates the value of his work. ‘To everyone he is known as 
the author of the fertile theory of mutation. By twenty odd 
years of continuous observation and experiment he was able to 
elaborate a theory which threw a flood of light upon the dark 
places of organic evolution, and became a powerful stimulus to 
research in all departments of experimental biology and 
evolutionary philosophy. 
His early work on osmosis and other phases of plant physi- 
ology was fundamental and scholarly, and would, of itself, have 
insured him a reputation of the first rank as an experimental 
inquirer into the secrets of living matter. 
We esteem it a high honor, Professor de Vries, that you 
have consented to plant this tree. 
(To the gardeners) 
Let the gardeners place the tree. 
(To Professor de Vries) 
The tree is set, and I hand you, Sir, to carry the soil, a 
trowel which has never before been used. 
Address of Professor de Vries* 
Ladies and Gentlemen: I have more than once had oppor- 
tunities of planting trees, but they were not Liguidambar 
Styracifiua, but species of the beeches and maples. I have hoped 
after I have planted them to live long enough to see them grow 

*Recorded stenographically. 
