BOTANIC GARDEN 



BOTANIC GARDEN 



531 



pose of testing them as a possible sulistitute for the 

 Irish potato. At one time there were over 100 varieties 

 of strawberries uniler cultivation here, including the 

 once famous Isabella, which originated as a chance 

 seedling or mutant in the garden of Isabella Graham, 

 in Brooklyn, ^\'hile not a botanic garden in the modern 

 or scientific sense, the Linniran garden exerted such 

 a profound influence on American horticulture and 

 arboriculture that it should not be entirely passed over 

 in this place. 



2. Evans's Garden (1828). The garden of John 

 Evans is located along Ithan Creek, near Philadelphia, 

 within walking distance from Rosemont Station, on 

 the Pennsylvania Railroad. It was established about 

 1828, and was one of the fruits of Bartram's garden. 

 Evans frequently visited the Bartram garflon and other 

 gardens in Philadelphia and vicinity, and became 

 greatly interested in plants. His father was a miller, 

 and the vicinity of the mill, with the creek and mill- 

 pond, and the diversified land adjacent, afforded a 

 wide range of habitat conditions. Evans corresponded 

 with Sir William Hooker and exchanged seeds with him, 

 as well as with the son. Sir Joseph Hooker, including 

 material collected by the latter in the Himalayas. He 

 also had a correspondent in Germany. In Evans's 

 garden the plants were arranged almost entirely on an 

 ecological basis, in "the order of nature," and in this 

 respect it differed materiallj' from most other gardens 

 before or since. Mr. Evans was his own director, cura- 

 tor, and head gardener, doing most of the manual labor 

 in the garden himself. It is of interest to note here that 

 he used sawdust from his father's mill to kill the weeds 

 around the cultivated plants, and this, on decaying, 

 made a rich fertilizer, which was spaded under. The 

 garden is said to have been, in its prime, practically 

 unrivaled in shrubs and trees, and to have had few 

 equals in the richness of its herbaceous material. Many 

 of the trees and shrubs were labeled with lead labels, 

 but no catalogue of the collections was ever pubUshed. 



3. The Missouri Botanical Garden (1859). The 

 Missouri Botanical Garden, at St. Louis, was estab- 

 lished b}- a gift of money and land from Henry Shaw. 

 It is popularly known in St. Louis as "Shaw's Gardens." 

 On November 6, 1885, Mr. Shaw established the 

 Henry Shaw School of Botany as a department of 

 Washington L'niversity, at St. Louis, and the garden 

 and school became closely affiliated. The professor or 

 one of the professors in the school shall be director 

 or director's assistant, or both. The grounds were 

 formerly closed to the pubhc on Sundays, except the 

 first Sunday of June and September, but since 1912 they 

 have been open every Sunday afternoon from April 

 to December. Each year there is preached in a local 

 church a sermon on "the wisdom and goodness of God 

 as shown in the growth of flowers, fruits, and other 

 products of the vegetable kingdom." The first director 

 of this garden was William Trelease, who resigned 

 in 1912, and was succeeded by George T. Moore. 

 The grounds comprise about 45 acres, the herbarium 

 about 800,000 sheets, and the hbrary about 50,000 

 books and pamphlets. One of the features of the gar- 

 den is a vegetable-garden, which gives pupils practice 

 in the growing of vegetables, and, by means of a forcing 

 house, this work is continued throughout the year. The 

 best-known publication is the .Annual Report. "The 

 Mis-souri Botanical Garden Bulletin," established in 

 January, 1913, will hereafter contain the annual 

 reports of the officers of the board and the director, 

 while the volume hitherto known as the "Annual 

 Report" will in the future be devoted exclusively to 

 the results of scientific research carried on at the 

 gardens. 



4. Elgin Botanic Garden (1801). The first botanic 

 garden in New York City was located on Murray 

 Hill, about 1656, and was the precurser of the 

 Elgin Botanic Garden, established in 1801, by David 



Hosack, on 20 acres of ground, located at what is now 

 the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 47th Street. 

 This garden was transferred to New York State in 

 1810, and became known as The Botanic Garden of the 

 State of New York. It was later transferred to Co- 

 lumbia University, but finally abandoned for lack of 

 funds. In the spring of 1913 the area was sold by the 

 university for $3,000,000. 



5. New York Botanical Garden (1894). The present 

 New York Botanical Garden, established in 1894, is 

 located at Bronx Park, in the Borough of the Bronx, 

 New York City. It comprises an area of approximately 

 250 acres, and besides two extensive ranges of plant- 

 houses, a range of six propagating-houses and the plan- 

 tations, includes the largest purely botanical museum 

 in the country, if not in the world. On the third floor 

 of the museum building are located the herbarium, 

 library and laboratories. The grounds, conservatories, 

 and mu.seum are open daily without charge. The 

 present Director-in-Chief, N. L. Britton, is also Pro- 

 fessor of Botany in Columbia University, and has 

 served since the foundation of the institution. Under 

 the auspices of this garden, the director and mem- 

 bers of the staff have conducted a systematic explora- 

 tion of continental and insular America, the results of 

 which are being embodied in the "North American 

 Flora," the most extensive botanical work ever under- 

 taken in America, appearing at intervals in fascicles or 

 parts. The herbarium, composed of the herbariums of 

 Columbia L^niversity, the Torrey Botanical Club, and 

 that of the garden proper, contains over 1,500,000 

 specimens, and the library has over 40,000 volumes 

 and pamphlets. The scientific policy of the institution 

 is directed by a Board of Scientific Directors, and the 

 financial administration by the Board of Managers of 

 the Trustees. The scientific staff comprises (1912), 

 besides the director-in-chief, an assistant director, a 

 head curator, four curators, two assistant curators, 

 head gardener, director of the laboratories, bibliogra- 

 pher, librarian, and other officers. Free public lectures 

 on botanical and closely related subjects are given on 

 successive Saturday afternoons, and the following pub- 

 Ucations are issued: "Journal" (monthly), "Mycolo- 

 gia" (bi-monthly), "Bulletin" (irregularly, and contain- 

 ing the Annual Report), "North American Flora," 

 Memoirs, and Contributions. The Garden is supported 

 by municipal and by private funds. 



6. Brooklj'n Botanic Garden. The Brooklyn Botanic 

 Garden, established in 1910, is a department of The 

 Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, and an out- 

 growth of the work of the Department of Botany of the 

 Institute. It was the wish of the founders to develop an 

 institution that, in connection with research, would 

 place more than usual emphasis upon formal instruc- 

 tion in botany. It is also the intention to emphasize 

 chiefly departments of botany other than taxonomy, 

 such as plant physiology and ecology, morphology, and 

 pathology, experimental evolution, and plant-breeding. 

 The first and present director is C. Stuart Gager. 

 The new laboratory and instruction building, in process 

 of erection (1912), will contain offices of administration, 

 several large laboratories, a small herbarium room, a 

 hbrary, physiological and photographic darkrooms, 

 and twelve private research rooms. A range of plant- 

 houses is also under construction. The grounds com- 

 prise about 43 acres, located in the heart of the borough 

 of Brooklyn. Through the center runs an artificial 

 brook, with swamp. The plantations are classified un- 

 der ten heads, as follows: (1) Systematic Section, com- 

 prising hardy herbaceous plants, chiefly perennials, 

 not native within 100 miles of the Garden, and arranged 

 in beds according to their natural affinities. (2) Local 

 Flora Section (Native Wild-flower Garden), containing 

 herbaceous and woody plants growing without cultiva- 

 tion within a radius of 100 miles of the Garden (the 

 Torrey Botanical Club Range). The strictly native 



