20 Minnesota Acodetny of Science 



parks, containing as it does ponds, pools and bogs, a diversity of soil 

 and slopes, and wooded heights commanding extensive views. 



The garden was opened the twentieth of April, 1907. It is 

 reached at present by the Bryn Mawr, the Fourth and Sixth avenue 

 north, and the Western avenue street railways and is about a mile 

 from their respective termini. It lies just beyond Glenwood lake, 

 long known as Keegan's on Western avenue, and occupies a de- 

 pression of land northeast of the boulevard intersecting the park, 

 and is directly opposite Birch pond, one of the loveliest spots in the 

 city. 



A particular reason for selecting this place was the undrained 

 tamarack swamp, such swamps being the abode of the rarest and 

 most interesting plants. At first, about three acres were given 

 over to the garden, comprising besides the tamarack swamp, a bit 

 of meadow and wooded slope. Since then, more than twice as much 

 land acquired by a subsequent purchase has been added, that greatly 

 enhances the value of the garden. 



A small, winding brook runs through the treeless, eastern por- 

 tion of the swamp. This has been widened near where it leaves 

 the garden into a little pond, in which is to be cultivated the lead- 

 ing aquatics; and the wayward curves of the brook are accentuated 

 by plantings of forget-me-not, cardinal flower, and other brookside 

 favorites. In the pond also the algae thrive, among them the 

 desmids whose beautiful forms might be utilized in decorative de- 

 signs for china, wall paper and textile fabrics. 



All of the essentials for the growth of plants are found in the 

 garden, — variants in water supply, protection from cold or drying 

 winds, inclines with different exposures, wooded and treeless swamps 

 and uplands, and a rich and varied soil content. Even the sand 

 plants have been provided for by means of an accident — a quantity 

 of sand, heaped up for the boulevard, having been washed by a storm 

 into a portion of the enclosure. 



The wild appearance of the garden is to be strictly maintained, 

 and no trace of artificiality nor of human interference is to be evi- 

 dent. Plants are to be allowed to grow as they will, not as people 

 may wish them to grow. Only native or naturalized Minnesotan 

 species are to be admitted, and each plant when introduced is to be 

 accommodated" with an environment similar to its original one, and 

 them left to take care of itself as in the wild open, with only the 

 natural fertilization furnished by decaying vegetation. No pruning 

 nor thinning out will be permitted, except what may be necessary 

 for paths by which to penetrate the thickets and for healthful 

 growth. Plants in excess may be removed, when others more desir- 

 able have been procured to replace them. 



The most abundant trees of the swamp are the tamarack, the 

 canoe and the yellow . birch and black ash. More sparsely gnyw* 

 among them red maple, box elder, and basswood; and, among the 

 shrubs are vigorous growths of dogwoods, willows, viburnums, poison 

 sumach, dwarf birch and Ilex verticillata. Bordering the swamp 

 area are the white and the red elm, large-toothed poplar, hackberry, 

 hop-hornbeam, hawthorns, and a superabundance of staghorn 

 sumach, hazel and prickly ash. The undershrubs are represented 



