THE BOTANICAL GAEDEN OF OAXACA 



C. CONZATTI 



Director of the Botanical Garden of Oaxaca, Mexico 



I. General 



At the end of the year 1909, when I was at the head of the 

 Teachers ' Normal School of the State of Oaxaca, a post which 

 I had held since the middle of 1891, I was asked by the Min- 

 istry of Improvements, Colonization and Industry, at that 

 time under Sr. Lie Don Olegario Molina, to assume the man- 

 agement of the Botanical Garden which was to be established 

 on the grounds of the Agricultural Experiment Station of the 

 same state. This station is situated about four kilometers 

 from the city and had been in operation for only a few months. 



Professor Don Felix Foex, the first director of the station, 

 was entrusted with the establishment of the Garden. He had 

 several interviews with me ; however attractive the proposition 

 appeared to me, I could not decide to accept it. Finally, after 

 much hesitation, I accepted the new position, and since then 

 I have devoted myself to it entirely, even though success is 

 doubtful ; without fear of being contradicted, I can say boldly 

 that I have been everything in the Botanical Garden, laborer, 

 manager, topographer, landscape gardener, clerk, gardener, 

 excursionist, and a hundred other things besides. 



At the beginning of 1910 there was a general suspension for 



several months of the activities of the Station. As soon as 

 the work could be resumed I devoted, with the half dozen men 

 that I had at my command, the rest of that year and the whole 

 of 1911 to the preliminary task of levelling, cleaning and adapt- 

 ing, in general, the ground for the new branch of the Station. 

 This was a mistake; I recognize it now when it is too late. 

 I should have insisted that the Botanical Garden, which was 

 to be established on the grounds of the Station, be absolutely 

 independent of the latter, or else I should have refused its 

 management. Unfortunately, I did neither, and to this date 



Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard., Vol. 2, 1915 



(165) 



