Wild Botanic Garden. 23 



represented in the garden. Maine, Nova Scotia, Massachusetts, 

 New York and Wisconsin have furnished the place with barrelfuls of 

 plants native to Minnesota, but more easily procurable in those 

 states. On account of its geographical position Minnesota has a 

 flora of a wide range, including representatives of alpine, forest, 

 prairie, and drought regions. It is an interesting problem to 

 adjust plants requiring such varying conditions to their life-relations 

 The largest plantings are made in the spring and fall; but plants 

 often have been successfully lifted when in full bloom, particularly 

 the hydrophytes. Annuals have also been transplanted by sods and 

 have thereafter seeded themselves. But the attempt to establish 

 sweet fern (Myrica asplenifolia) is as yet a failure, perhaps because 

 it requires a poorer, or at least a different sort of soil. 



The list of the indigenous plants is not yet complete, because 

 many of the smaller herbs mature and complete their course con- 

 cealed by the surrounding lush vegetation. Indeed, more than once, 

 specimens from abroad have been planted, only later to find them 

 indigenous and plentiful in some overlooked corner of the garden. 

 What remains to be done is to add the wanting specimens, in- 

 crease the individuals of the most desirable plants, and to fill in the 

 gaps made by those which die out from lack of vigor or unsuitable 

 environment. A minute topographical survey of the garden is also 

 to be made, and the position of the plants occupying each foot of 

 space mapped out and designated by a reference number in the card 

 catalogue which already records their general location and history. 

 A wild botanic garden similar to ours in design and scope was 

 established some twenty years ago in St. John, New Brunswick by 

 Dr. George U. Hay, the editor of "The Educational Review" and 

 the writer of Canadian history. At this time Dr. Hay was teaching 

 botany in the high school of St. John, and the immediate purpose 

 of the garden was for the instruction of his pupils. We had sup- 

 posed that the scheme of our garden was purely original until 

 hearing of this place. My interest was so greatly aroused that I 

 went expressly to New Brunswick to see it. 



Dr. Hay's garden comprises about two acres, ideally situated on 

 the St. John river, about twelve miles above the city of St. John, and 

 is reached by the Canadian Pacific railway. It was his aim to bring 

 together as much as possible of the flora of New Brunswick. He 

 told me how the idea came to him. "I observed," said he, "when 

 standing on this very spot, that without taking a step, but by merely 

 stretching out my hand, I could touch eight different species of trees; 

 and the thought occurred to me: 'Since nature has done so much for 

 this place, why cannot I help on the work by doing a little more?'" 

 Dr. Hay's garden is without a swamp, so that some of the plants 

 that happily flourish in ours, lead in his a precarious existence. The 

 essential features of a swamp are, however, somewhat supplied by a 

 broad, winding brook, and his grounds are diversified by hill, valle\ r 

 and meadow. Most of all I coveted his possession of large bould 

 ers, which he had completely draped with the rock fern, Polypodium 

 vulgare. How truly Dr. Hay had copied nature in this respect, 

 I did not realize, until, shortly afterwards, I found at Taylor's Falls 

 the very "moral" of those boulders in shape and size, and covered as 



