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rations on the higher plants, most of which were published in the 

 Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, of which he was editor from 

 1888 to 1898. In 1886 his title in Columbia College was changed 

 to Instructor in Geology and Botany and in 1891 to Adjunct 

 Professor of Botany. During all of this time he was laying the 

 foundations in fact, if not with full intent, for the Britton and 

 Brown, "Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and 

 Canada," which came out in three volumes, 1896-98. Illustrated 

 floras had appeared in Europe, but this was the first sustained at- 

 tempt in the United States to describe its plants with a text illustra- 

 tion of the characteristic features of each species. The work was 

 a popular success and now, thirty-six years after the publication of 

 the third volume, when it is of necessity somewhat outmoded, the 

 work still remains a good seller. It has played a great part in 

 popularizing the study of plants in the United States and Canada, 

 as has also its non-pictorial one-volume successor, Britton's "Man- 

 ual of the Flora of the Northern States and Canada." 



Doctor Britton himself is authority for the statement that the 

 beginnings of the history of The New York Botanical Garden may 

 be traced to a remark made to him by Mrs. Britton in the summer 

 of 1888, when they were on a visit to the Royal Botanic Gardens 

 at Kew, England. Mrs. Britton, impressed by the beauty and 

 scientific interest of the plant exhibits at Kew and by the impor- 

 tance of the Royal Gardens' numerous contributions to the litera- 

 ture of the plant sciences, said, in effect: "Why couldn't we have 

 something of this kind in New York?" At a meeting of the 

 Torrey Botanical Club held on October 24, 1888, Mrs. Britton 

 gave a description of the Royal Gardens at Kew. At the next meet- 

 ing of the Club, a committee was appointed, consisting of E. E. 

 Sterns, Arthur Hollick, Thomas Hogg, H. H. Rushy, T. F. Allen, 

 N. L. Britton, J. S. Newberry, and Addison Brown, to consider the 

 idea of establishing a botanical garden in the City of New York. 

 At a meeting of the Club on January 8, 1889, an appeal for such a 

 garden, prepared by the committee, was adopted and ordered 

 printed. The consent of the Department of Public Parks was se- 

 cured for the establishment of the proposed garden if sufficient 

 means for its maintenance could be obtained. An Act ot the Legis- 

 lature of the State of New York, drawn by Judge Charles P. Daly 

 and Judge Addison Brown, became a law when signed by Gover- 



