THE WILD BOTANIC GARDEN IN GLENWOOD PARK, 

 MINNEAPOLIS. 



By Eloise Butler. 



The most interesting features of America to a foreigner are the 

 Indian and his primitive mode of life, soon to become a matter of 

 tradition, and our wild scenery, with its indigenous flora and fauna, 

 which are fast disappearing in the neighborhood of settlements and 

 under the march of so-called improvements. Indeed, to the older 

 residents of Minneapolis most of their favorite haunts in "the deep, 

 tangled wildwood" exist only in memory. The prairie at Minne- 

 haha is burned over annually by mischievous boys; the shy, wood- 

 land plants are dwindling out from our river banks; the pools and 

 ponds, teeming with algae, as the microscopic desmids and diatoms 

 of marvellous beauty, many of which were new to the world, have 

 been drained and with the drying up of the water, the orchids, the 

 insectivorous plants, and myriads of other species have vanished, 

 that cannot thrive elsewhere. 



Hence the students of botany and the lovers of wild nature have 

 been forced to go farther and farther afield, as to the shores of White 

 Bear and Minnetonka; but even there the land has been platted into 

 building lots and ruthlessly stripped of those exquisite features that 

 Nature, the greatest landscape gardener, has for so many year:; 

 been perfecting. Many of the cottagers on the lake shores are im- 

 bued with conventional ideas of plant decoration more appropriate 

 for city grounds, and condemn their neighbors who are striving to 

 preserve the wildness, for a lack of neatness in not using a lawn 

 mower, and in not pulling down the vine-tangles in which birds nest 

 and sing, — apparently dissatisfied until the wilderness is reduced to 

 one dead level of monotonous, songless tameness. 



Again, under favorable, natural conditions, to see all the plants 

 that are in bloom on any given day in Minnesota, would necessitate 

 a journey of many miles, by reason of the differences in temperature 

 and elevation, the varying factors of moisture, soil content, exposure 

 to light, freaks of distribution, and the unequal struggles in the 

 battle for existence. 



Therefore, to preserve intact and within easy reach some of our 

 vanishing wild land; to maintain a depot of plant supplies for the 

 schools; to afford an opportunity to study the problems of forestry 

 and ecology at first hand; and to represent, as far as it can be 

 represented in a limited space, the flora of Minnesota — for the bene- 

 fit of students of botany and lovers of nature — the teachers of botany 

 in Minneapolis and other interested citizens petitioned the park 

 board to set aside a tract of land for a wild botanic garden. The 

 teachers were to supervise the garden and the board were to protect 

 the property and defray the necessary expenses. The site selected 

 by the teachers and generously granted by the board lies in Glen- 

 wood Park, the largest and perhaps the most beautiful of all our 



