THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 
BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN 
RECORD 
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FOUNDATION AND ORGANIZATION OF THE 
BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN* 
In 1897 the Hon. George W. Brush, M.D., introduced 
into the Legislature of New York State a bill for the establish- 
ing and maintaining of 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 prose- 
cution and exhibition of ornamental and decorative horticul- 
ture and gardening, and for the entertainment, recreation and 
instruction of the people.” 
For these purposes the Commissioner of Parks of the City 
of Brooklyn was “authorized and required to set apart and ap- 
propriate all of that portion of Prospect Park bounded north- 
erly by the Eastern Parkway, easterly by Washington Avenue, 
southerly by the line formerly dividing the City of Brooklyn 
from the late town of Flatbush, and westerly by Flatbush 
Avenue, excepting only such lands as have been reserved for 
the Prospect Hill reservoir, and such other lands as have been 
leased to The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences.’ ‘This 
bill became a law on May 18, 1897, and comprises Chapter 509 
of the Laws of 1897 
At a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Brooklyn 
Institute of Arts and Sciences, held in June, 1905, a communica- 
‘Since a consecutive account of the organization of the Garden, and 
the various steps leading thereto, has never appeared in a Garden ae 
lication, it has been thought desirable to place the matter on record a 
this time 
