THE NATIONAL ARBORETUM 



403 



B. Y. MORRISON 



The National Arboretum in the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia was established by 

 Act of Congress approved March 4, 

 1927. Under this act the Secretary of 

 Agriculture was authorized and di- 

 rected to establish and maintain a 

 National Arboretum for purposes of re- 

 search and education concerning tree 

 and plant life. Under authority of the 

 act the Secretary of Agriculture has 

 appointed an Advisory Council on 

 the planning and development of the 

 Arboretum. The Council at present 

 consists of 15 members, representing 

 national organizations, including nurs- 

 erymen, garden clubs, educational 

 institutions, and others interested in 

 the aims of the Arboretum. 



Since its beginning the responsibility 

 for the development and administra- 

 tion of the Arboretum has been as- 

 signed to the Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 Soils, and Agricultural Engineering. 



When land purchases now in process 

 are completed, the National Arbore- 

 tum will occupy an area of about 410 

 acres located in the northeast section 

 of the District of Columbia, bounded 

 on the west by Bladensburg Road, on 

 the south by M Street, on the east by 

 the Anacostia Parkway, and somewhat 

 irregularly on the north by R Street, 

 Hickey Lane, and New York Avenue. 



Its soils are somewhat varied and its 

 terrain is so diversified that there can 

 be found sloping sites with almost any 

 desired exposure. 



Originally composed of some forty- 

 odd parcels, some of which had been 

 farmed, it is now integrated into a 

 single whole with the tree-covered 

 mass of Mount Hamilton along the 

 western border, the broad, inner, rela- 

 tively flat, central portion diagonally 

 traversed by Hickey Creek and its 

 tree-covered banks, and on the eastern 

 borders the steep and tree-covered 

 slopes of Hickey Ridge, which over- 

 looks the broad expanses of the Ana- 



costia Parkway, with the Maryland 

 hills in the distance. 



The area is served by a system of 

 roads that give access to all parts in 

 case of fire, nuisance, and other emer- 

 gency. These will be modified from 

 their present purely functional design 

 when the current studies are completed 

 and several large areas now devoted 

 actively to nurseries will be returned 

 to their proper uses. 



In the planning now under way, the 

 Arboretum site will be organized and 

 operated much as is the National 

 Zoological Garden, or any one of the 

 national museums. This will mean that 

 there will be a major portion of the 

 area open to the visiting public during 

 all work hours, a smaller section de- 

 voted to the nursery and service areas 

 in which the public would not be in- 

 terested, and a large building to house 

 scientific research, the laboratories, and 

 collections of herbarium materials, all 

 of which will be the concern of the 

 technical staff and of visiting scientists 

 and students only. These three divisions 

 will be somewhat separated. 



The Arboretum is not open to the 

 general public at the present time, but 

 students can arrange to work in the 

 herbarium, which is now housed at the 

 Plant Industry Station at Beltsville, 

 Md., or by appointment in advance 

 may see the living plant collections 

 during working days. Since there is 

 considerable active construction under 

 way and there will be more construc- 

 tion for the next few years, it is hoped 

 that the public will be understanding. 



As in all proper arboretums, the 

 major interest lies in plants themselves, 

 with attention to woody plants only, be 

 they tree or shrub, provided only that 

 they are hardy and successfully grown 

 in this climate. With species, natural 

 forms and variations, as the base, the 

 collections will be enlarged to include 

 not only those variable forms worthy 



